Coyle doubles up for third straight week, as Wachman, Sweetnam, Swail and Kenny also score at highest level
The Whispers had a number of hits in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. And The Beat Goes On was one of their biggest, in 1979, and it could easily be used on an advertising blurb representing the fortunes of Irish show jumping right now.
The LA vocal group specialised in soul and there is an ocean of that around the Green Jacketed scene at present, as the Irish manage to not just match the successes of heretofore, but improve upon them.
This week will take surpassing though, as apart from the five-star Barrière Nations Cup victory of the Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping Team at La Baule on Friday, secured by Bertram Allen, Seamus Hughes Kennedy, Tom Wachman and Cian O’Connor, there were six individual five-star triumphs by five athletes from these shores.
Daniel Coyle bagged his third double in as many weeks, with the previous two having been at four-star level when he also claimed leading rider honours at Langley and helped Ireland win a third straight Nations Cup at Thunderbird Show Park, along with brother Jordan, cousin Christian and long-time mentor, Conor Swail.
This week’s two wins came at Spruce Meadows, where Swail and Darragh Kenny also registered victories and there were three all-Ireland podiums at the highest grade.
Back in Europe, Wachman gave himself the perfect boost ahead of his major role in Ireland’s Nations Cup success at La Baule by landing an elite prize on Thursday while Shane Sweetnam delivered at the prestigious venue on Saturday.
In addition to all that, Wachman’s brother, Max helped St Tropez Pirates win the Cannes leg of the Longines Global Champions League with a clear round.
And as if that weren’t enough, Alex Butler recorded two three-star successes in Drammen. It was an Irish hegemony, reflective of the fact that five of the top 21 athletes in the world represent the Tricolour with pride.
Incredible won twice at four-star grade last week, sparking the inevitable headlines it was more of the same as he made light of the step up in class to the 1.50m/1.55m Mustangs jump-off competition with Coyle (main photo, all Spruce Meadows photo courtesy of Spruce Meadows Media/Bart Onyszko). After making sure of getting into the tiebreaker, the grey and his Ardmore pilot sped around the All Canada Ring in 38.66 to score by just under half a second.
In the morning, it was his Olympic mount, the wonder mare, Legacy (below) that hit the high notes for the Longines world ranked No 13 rider, posting her trademark double clear over Peter Grant’s 1.50m course and going fastest in the jump-off in a time of 40.28 to see off Kenny and Eddy Blue (41.10) with Galwegian David O’Brien and El Balou Old completing the Greenwash.
“I can’t say enough good things about Spruce Meadows,” said Coyle. “I’ve learned so much here; my horses have learned so much here. It’s an amazing job what they’re doing. They never stop making the place better. They put the new ring in last year. I think it’s even better this year… we’ve had a great start.”
Swail got on the scoresheet individually as well as with Team Ireland in Vancouver last week and he too followed up at the highest level, the world number 15 delivering with One Edition in the Township Planning & Design Cup over 1.45m.
Among the top ten accumulators of prize money at all time at Spruce Meadows, at number nine, the Darragh Cross athlete was among 14 combinations that navigated the 15 jumping efforts in the necessary time at the first stage, but there was no beating the Irish in the tiebreaker, as Swail and One Edition (below) just beat off an unlucky Kenny once more by a tenth of a second with a time of 41.73.
Kenny piloted Lightning to runner-up and completed the podium positions with an excellent jump-off too on Diaroubet.
The Offaly man finally got his head in front today (Sunday) in the Canadian Utilities Cup and astonishingly, it was all about the green, white and gold once more with Jordan Coyle and For Gold narrowly denied by 0.21 seconds, and Swail and One Edition settling on this occasion for third.
Grant set a gruelling course for the 1.45m/1.50m class with 18 jumping efforts covering 600m of turf. It was all change in the closing stages as Swail took the lead with his ten-year-old mare as the 28th of 32 into the All Canada Ring.
That lasted around two minutes, before Coyle and For Gold stopped the clock on 96.50 seconds. But he had barely dismounted when the world-ranked No 18 and Lightning set what proved to be the unbeatable standard, with the two subsequent pairings failing to break the Irish stranglehold on the podium.
It was Tom Wachman that got it all going at La Baule on Thursday, as he guided Hawaii to victory in the 1.45m Prix Boss Equestrian.
The Goolds Cross tyro won the two-phase competition by gliding to a double clear, stopping the timer at the end of the speed phase on 29.57 seconds to beating off 66 other combinations. Brazil’s in-form Stephan De Freitas Barcha chased in second with Dirka Imperio Egipcio and German Daniel Deusser was third with Bingo Ste Hermelle.
“I’m delighted to win,” said Wachman to World of Showjumping. “It’s a lovely show here in La Baule… Hawaii is super, she is very quick. She is only nine years old so I’m still getting to know her but I’m very happy with her.”
Sweetnam added to the celebrations in north west France by scoring in the 1.50m Prix Saur on Saturday.
The 65 participants in the €110,000 competition included many of the world’s best, with star power emanating from every corner, but it was Castlemagner’s world No 21 that prevailed in a dramatic jump-off on Gilona AO. It was a welcome return to the big time for the mare, who had been sidelined by injury for more than a year after making a very promising start for Sweetnam.
Less than four-tenths of a second covered the podium finishers but Gilona’s brilliant double clear and an electric jump-off time of 36.28 edged out Abdel Saïd (BEL) and Calvaro, with Swiss athlete Nadja Peter Steiner in third on Nice Van’t Zorgvliet.
“It’s a difficult course to build, because you have so many good riders and horses and it’s a 1.50m,” said Sweetnam. “Yes it’s big but when you see that many clears because you have so much quality here.
“It was a really exciting jump-off for the crowd, it’s packed here as usual. Everything was so tight, so everyone was very happy with the class – especially me!
“Gilona is really careful and she has a big stride, and she is always trying to please, so I thought I’d take a risk back to the plank and then back to the second-last and she has plenty of scope so it worked out in my favour.
“I have had Gilona for two years now. She is a very good horse and she won a Grand Prix straight when I got her. But then she sustained a big injury and I was not sure she was going to come back, but she did. She’s been back since December last year and this is the first time I have had her in Europe. This is a big win for her.”
Max Wachman and Fancy De Kargane go clear for St Tropez Pirates in the LGCL of Cannes (Stefano Graccos/LGCT-GCL)
A clear round from Max Wachman and Fancy De Kergane in the 1.55m speed competition helped St Tropez Pirates to second spot at the half-way point in the LGCL in the City of Stars on the French Riviera on Friday and while he sat out the second competition, the Pirates made it to the top position on the podium thanks to a clear round from Duarte Seabra (POR) and Dourados 2.
St Tropez finished third in the last round, when Tom Wachman made an important contribution, and Seabra had no doubts about the key ingredient as they climb the overall leaderboard to fourth.
“I think we know the formula… we just need one of the Wachmans in our team,” said Seabra on GCTV. “Last time in Madrid we had Tom, and this week we had Max… so it doesn’t matter which one. I think that’s the key now to a podium!”
Also on Friday, Butler was among the winners at the three-star Longines EEF event in Drammen. Riding Kings Queen Jt Z in a dramatic 58-strong 1.45m speed class, the Cortown athlete prevailed by the minimum margin, setting a time of 66.91 seconds when going clear.
That snatched the gold medal from Pole Marek Lewicki and Quaid Casio by one-hundredth of a second.
The pair were at it again on Sunday, coming out on top of a field of 70 in the 1.45m Championship competition, with a quarter of a second ahead at 40.09 from French athlete Felix Jarry on Elgaura.