O’Shea wins Bridgehampton Longines Cup
- 30 August 2015, 01:04
LIMERICK’S Paul O’Shea recovered from what seemed a devastating crash in Friday’s grand prix qualifier at Bridgehampton in the US to win the $40,000 Longines Cup on Skara Glen’s Dolphin today (Saturday).
His faultless jump-off round, in 41.52 seconds, handily eclipsed the USA’s Hayley Barnhill on Zephire by just under a second in the five horse jump-off. O’Shea was the final starter, riding Skara Glen’s Dolphin, a 10-year-old stallion.
During Friday’s Douglas Elliman Grand Prix Qualifier, O’Shea fell with Skara Glen’s Sienna and was eliminated. But the Irish rider, who has lived in Wellington, Florida for some years, pushed the crash to the back of his mind as he prepared for the Longines Cup.
“I didn’t want to dwell on it. It’s the best thing to get it out of your mind,” he said. “It actually took me a long, long time to learn to go forward after I made a mistake. But now I’ve learned that, if I make a mistake, I say to myself, ‘I know something good is going to happen next.'”
For his victory today, O’Shea gets to wear a Longines timepiece, presented to him by Juan-Carlos Capelli, vice president and head of international marketing at Longines, and also took home the 9,000 euro winner’s cheque.
On Sunday, Capelli will also present a Longines timepiece to the winner of the $30,000 Longines Leading Rider Challenge.
But, even though he’s standing second with 165 points (having won the Open Jumper class on Tuesday with Primo Calypso), O’Shea will not win that timepiece too.
That’s because Cork’s Shane Sweetnam has amassed an unbeatable lead during the four-star show with 315 points, even though he only finished ninth in the Longines Cup today on Eregast Van’T Kiezelhof, which still earned 21 points.
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