Five-star Grand Prix podiums for Pender, Swail and Simpson
Philip McGuane was the big winner at four-star level but there were some outstanding performances that delivered five-star podiums too, the high-water mark being Mikey Pender’s runner-up finish in the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Cannes on Saturday night.
Conor Swail did not add to his seven international triumphs in the previous two weeks in Langley but posted two podiums at another of his favourite haunts Spruce Meadows, including the bronze ribbon in the Continental Show’s concluding Grand Prix on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, David Simpson was also a five-star podium finisher in St Gallen.
It was McGuane who ensured the Tricolour was raised highest however, and the national anthem was given an airing in Virginia, where the oldest show in America, the four-star Upperville Colt & Horse Show, was celebrating its 173rd anniversary.
And as everyone knows, if you are having a party, you need the Irish to bring it up a notch, which is what the Clare native did by coming out on top of the tightest finish imaginable to nab first prize in the Welcome Stake on Friday night Irish time.
McGuane propelled Crislin Van Den Bosrand Z (Evergate Stables, main photo) to a double clear but amazingly, the duo were only one-hundredth of a second ahead of Sloane Coles (USA) with Ninja JW Van De Moerhoeve, thanks to a jump-off time of 33.74 around a challenge posed by another Irishman, Alan Wade. And that, in itself, was less than a quarter of a second quicker than the mark set by pathfinder Daniel Bluman (ISR) with Hummer Z.
Nicky Galligan, from Meath, was also in the jump-off but Jolly-Jessy had eight faults and the duo had to settle for ninth.
On the other side of the Atlantic and in a far less rustic setting – more superyacht than pick-up truck – the Mediterranean city of Cannes played host to the Longines Global Champions Tour, with the €500,000 Grand Prix providing a fitting denouement on Saturday night.
And Pender illustrated not just his talents, but those of the 10-year-old Marion Hughes-bred Irish Sport Horse HHS Cyprus (Bravo Hughes, above), who recorded a stunning double clear over the 1.60m course with its 1.70m spreads.
It was a fantastic effort by both horse and rider. The Kildare athlete and his young partner were first to go clear very early on in the fray, and only three other combinations would join them.
That did mean the Irish pair he had to go first in the jump-off and their round was a good one, deserving the high fist pump after stopping the clock on 41.35. That proved beyond two of the three following contestants but Abdel Said, the Egyptian rider now representing Belgium, had a speedier, more experienced model in Wathnan Zasou vom Claashof, the 12-year-old keeping lower to the ground and moving swiftly across it, while able to turn on a sixpence.
Once the rails were left intact, Pender was going to be supplanted at the top of the table, by virtue of a time of 39.44 that brooked no argument, while Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann (GER) and Cellagon Cascais completed the podium after a thrilling night of sport on the Côte d’Azur.
It was a brilliant result for the Castledermot rider, with a young horse bred by his primary patrons, and the not inconsequential matter of the €100,000 prize money all added up to a beaming smile.
“I am absolutely delighted,” Pender confirmed afterwards. “Cyprus is only 10 and this is the first time jumping an LGCT Grand Prix and one of this size, so I couldn’t be more delighted with second place. Normally, I may not be happy with second… but he really stepped up to the game.”
Cian O’Connor, who was 11th with Gospel Tame, after picking p four faults, drops to fourth overall on 85 points with Said moving past him but is in a very strong position, albeit with 10 rounds still remaining in the race to be LGCT champion – the next in the equally salubrious St Tropez next week.
Earlier in the week, Ciarán Nallon continued his good form with another podium on the Longines Global Champions Tour, placing third with Casalla Blue PS (Beerbaum Stables) in the second competition of the Global Champions League leg on Thursday.
Nallon was runner-up at LGCT Madrid a fortnight before with the exciting 10-year-old, and also was a silver medallist in an individual competition at Miami Beach earlier in the season.
And with Port Pierre Canto as a backdrop, he was at it again with the mare as one of only three clear rounds, and they were rewarded for their accuracy and the young Mayo pilot for his judgement, sneaking inside the time allowed by five-hundredths of a second.
Max Wachman and Fancy de Kergane (Coolmore Showjumping/Susan Magnier, above) fell foul of that time but three faults earned the duo fifth in this stern examination.
And that effort, allied with two time faults in the opening competition, helped New York Empire secure their first victory of the League this year, as Scott Brash (GBR) weighed in with a combined tally of one fault with two horses, Hello Chadora Lady and Hello Jefferson.
That propels the Tipperary athlete’s squad into fourth after five legs of the lucrative series.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” said Wachman. “To win anywhere on the GCL circuit is special, but to do it here in Cannes with this atmosphere is great. The crowd was incredible and there was such a great buzz around the arena. A huge thank you has to go to our team owner Georgina (Bloom) for the opportunity and everyone involved with New York Empire team.”
In St Gallen, David Simpson came away with a bronze medal with Pjotr Van De Kruishoeve, the 11-year-old stallion he owns himself, going clear in 69.32 to take a considerable share of the prize money from the 1.50m speed class won by Ben Maher (GBR) with Ginger-Blue in 68.70.
Going clear wasn’t a straightforward task for the field of 57, with only 16 leaving the fences in places, as the search for the hundredths and tenths drew countless victims.
To that end, Pjotr Van De Kruishoeve and his Derry rider managed affairs magnificently, looking after the bottom line but doing so in competitive fashion, with only the high-calibre combinations of Maher and Ginger-Blue, and Aaron Vale (USA) and Gray’s Inn, bettering their efforts.
On Saturday, Leah Stack had a huge result as runner-up in the U25 Grand Prix. Riding Idocus (Stephex Stables). Stack was very close to leaving the prestigious Swiss venue with the big prize but the Kildare athlete and her 13-year-old gelding were outstanding in recording two clear rounds.
The 41.80 seconds posted in the jump-off was a second and a half better than the best of the rest but just a half-second shy of Djuna Lauder (USA), with Paladin 116.
At Spruce Meadows’ Continental Show, Farrel (Ariel Grange) illustrated how well he had taken the return transatlantic trip, after his five-star victory in Aachen a couple of weeks ago, by taking fourth in the five-star Altagas Cup on Friday, with his regular partner Daniel Coyle in the saddle.
It was so close to another brilliant triumph though for Ariel Grange’s 16-year-old gelding and his Derry rider, as they were the fastest combination in the tiebreaker of the 1.55m class by an extraordinary distance but unfortunately had knocked a rail.
Victory went to Gabriel De Matos Machado (BRA) with the Joe Reillly-bred Irish Sport Horse Legaland Sandro, who did the most important part of leaving all the obstacles intact around the course designed by Drogheda native Tom Holden, and stopped the clock in 43.19 second time around.
That was enough to secure the win by almost one and a half seconds, and yet, it was more than three and a half seconds slower than the 39.61 posted by the fleet-footed Farrel and Coyle.
A few hours later, recent Thunderbird winners, Swail and Theo 160 (Mannon Farms) were touched off by less than half a second in the 1.50m jump-off class, Mark Bluman and S&L Haquinsa registering a time of 37.71 in the definitive round, compared to 38.16 by Swail and his 14-year-old.
Canada has been good to Swail in the previous fortnight, securing seven classes in consecutive weeks leading into this one, with five different horses. Theo was among those victors and maintained his brilliant consistency in the All Canada Ring that his Down guide knows like the back of his hand.
And the week ended as Swail and Casturano (Conall Murray) were third in the AKITA Drilling Grand Prix, with Holden posing a number of questions that proved beyond most of the field.
Indeed, there were only two clear rounds from the 30 competitors over the 16 jumping efforts, and another quartet of combinations on four faults. Swail and Stan were the fastest of those with a rail down, in a time of 75.38 to earn a considerable slice of the prize fund on offer.
Victory went to New Zealand’s Katie Laurie and Django II with the sole double clear.
BREEDING
HHS CYPRUS (ISH) – 2016 gelding by Cornet Obolensky (BWP) out of HHS Acorado (ISH) by Acorado (HOLST). Breeder: Marion Hughes. Owner: Bravo Hughes Ltd. Rider: Michael Pender (IRL).
LEGALAND SANDRO (ISH) – 2014 ch gelding by Sandro Boy (OLDBG) out of Drumiller Digital (ISH) by Clinton (HOLST). Breeder: Joe Reilly, Co Cavan. Owner: Bay Winds Equestrian Rider: Gabriel De Matos Machado (BRA).