Coyle, Nallon and Dore bag two-star GPs
International competition continues even with the FEI World Championships taking place and it proved a particularly good week for Conor Swail and James Chawke with multiple victories at four and three-star level.
Daniel Coyle, Ciaran Nallon and Kian Dore were two-star Grand Prix winners, the latter taking the spoils at the successful Millstreet Horse Show.
Wesley Clover Parks hosted a four and two-star event in Ottawa and Swail was victorious on four occasions, three times with Conall Murray’s Casturano.
After a low-key warm-up triumph on Thursday, Swail took the 13-year-old gelding into stronger competition and secured the second leg of a personal Grand Prix qualifier double on Friday night.
Indeed the Down native and Casturano led home an Irish 1-2, when grabbing first prize in the four-star qualifier.
Five contestants qualified for the tiebreaker and it was the Green Jackets that dominated. Coyle and Urville Z (Ariel Grange) were very neat and tidy upon their return to the arena, registering 37.68, but the Derry pilot’s former mentor at Lothlorien Farm had more up his sleeve, posting a time of 37.04 to land the spoils.
This came after Swail had scored in the two-star qualifier. Nadal Hero & DB (Mannon Farm) has been flourishing at two-star level since belatedly stepping into international competition and the 12-year-old added to his burgeoning CV when triumphant in Canada.
The Darragh Cross rider also made the podium in Saturday night’s feature, the four-star Grand Prix. The course was a difficult one, with only four clear rounds. Having made the jump-off, Swail would have been quite confident as Theo 160 (Mannon Farm) has a proven pedigree in speed classes.
The Holsteiner gelding illustrated that once more as the quickest of the quartet, in 42.03, but one rail down mean they had to be content with third and the $38,822.25 that came with it.
Victory went to Adrienne Sternlight (USA) with Faquitol-S, who went clear in 42.99.
On Sunday, Coyle took the honours in the two-star Grand Prix, guiding Nord Face VDL (Ariel Grange) to the top spot.
A quintet of double clears meant that you had to be rapid and nimble to nab the gold ribbon and their 38.55 brooked no argument, a full 1.39 seconds faster than their nearest rivals.
And Swail completed the international competition by raising the Tricolour once more, returning with Casturano to win the four-star Classic on Sunday, with a trademark double clear.
They were the only combination to break 39 seconds in the deciding round, a time of 38.76 more than sufficient to complete a fruitful show for horse and rider.
Chawke got the Summer Fort Classic, Thunderbird’s three-star show in Vancouver, off to a perfect start by bagging the opening 1.45m speed class in the most facile manner imaginable with One Edition on Wednesday night Irish time.
The Abbeyleix native and the Vanessa Mannix-owned 11-year-old mare were head and shoulders ahead of the other 26 pairings.
The duo blitzed to a clear round in 67.74 seconds, compared to the best of the rest, Charlie Jones (GBR) and Morize F Z, who stopped the timers of 72.19.
The in-form combination took second in Friday’s 1.50m jump-off class, recording two more clear rounds and using the pace shown 48 hours earlier to clock 42.15. Victory went to Laura Hazlett (USA) with Avianna, who were 0.62 seconds quicker.
Chawke recorded his second win of the show with the eight-year-old Nandos S (Vanessa Mannix), who continues to make rapid progress.
One week after stepping up to the 1.40m height for the first time and winning a national grand prix at the venue, the duo (below) returned and took out the 1.45m three-star Winning Round on Saturday.
The format brought the top 10 combinations back in reverse order, with the lead changing hands with nearly every round. Third from last to return, Braden James and Hermes Des Carmilles set the bar, shaving two and half seconds off Jeffrey Fields leading time on Noble. Thursday’s winners Francisco Lomelin and Con Amore fell just short of the mark, slotting ahead of Fields, while Chawke and Nandos S (Van Gogh x Numero Uno) set a new one entirely, dropping the time by another second and a half.
The pair stopped the clock at 40.31 seconds.
“He is very quick naturally,” said Chawke. “Obviously Braden was fast. I wasn’t sure if I could get 10 [strides] one to two, and once I got that I figured I could continue and do the eight [to the next] and then just sort of stay on it for the last few jumps.”
For the Laois rider, the victory is another milestone in a carefully managed development program for the young horse.
“He’s not that much experience. Last Friday was his first 1.40m. Wednesday was his first 1.45m. So we’re just trying to teach him to jump bigger and also be efficient and a bit handier.”
“He’s wildly talented. He’s a very big step. He’s quite quick in the air. He is careful and he jumps high, but he always keeps going across the jump, which I think helps you land with a bit of foot speed.”
At the two-star show in Peelbergen, Ciaran Nallon and Casalla Blue PS (Beerbaum Stables) romped to victory in Saturday’s Grand Prix in the Milestone Farm Arena, with Michael Duffy third on Camina Z (Sportpferde Kuck Gb R).
Nallon and his patron’s 10-year-old mare have enjoyed a strong campaign and it has been Nallon’s breakout year in particular. The Mayo athlete guided Casalla Blue to a double clear and jump-off time of 36.75 seconds at the Dutch venue to come out on top from 80 other combinations.
Duffy, from Galway, narrowly missed out on making it an Irish 1-2, as Camina was flawless in the jumping department and recorded 38.39 in her second outing, a mere two-tenths of a second off the silver medal target.
Millstreet Horse Show provided quality two-star fare during the week and Max Foley took top prize in Friday’s Connolly’s Red Mills Grand Prix qualifier with Illusion De Hus.
The young Carlow rider and eight-year-old mare Illusion De Hus (Hugh McOwan) prevailed by just over half a second from Kilkenny’s Jack Ryan and Seamus Drea-owned-and-bred DSH Lucky Junior, with Kildare’s Cathal Daniels and Like A Star (Sandra Duffy) in third.
Kian Dore guided Monterey Bay to the winner’s enclosure in Sunday’s Noel C Duggan Engineering Millstreet Grand Prix.
The Limerick teenager was following up a recent victory at the Tattersalls July Show with Jillian Lennon’s 10-year-old gelding, and their jump-off clear in 39.64 was a little less than three-quarters of a second too quick for Ryan and DSH Lucky Junior.
Sligo jockey, Paddy Reape was third with the George McCullough-bred Irish Sport Horse Mr Rocky Blue (Jonathan Reape).
At Bonheiden, Kilkenny’s Ivan Dalton guided Floris RZ (Butler Court Stables) to the middle tier of the podium in a two-star 1.45m speed class on Thursday, clocking 31.77 when recording a jump-off clear round. That was 13-hundredths of a second off the winning mark set by Briton Fraser Reed, with the Matthew McBreen-bred Ses Jumeirah.
BREEDING
SES JUMEIRAH (ISH) – 2017 bay gelding by Diamant De Semilly (SF) out of Jumeirah (ISH) by Douglas (KWPN). Breeder: Matthew McBreen, Co Cavan. Owner: Matthew Pike. Rider: Fraser Reed (GBR)
DSH LUCKY JUNIOR (ISH) – 2016 grey gelding by Bbs McGregor (ISH) out of Dahlyi (ISH) by Luidam (KWPN). Breeder and Owner: Seamus Drea, Co Kilkenny. Rider: Jack Ryan (IRL)
MR ROCKY BLUE (ISH) – 2016 gr gelding by Chacco-Blue (MECKL) out of Ardeche Z (ZANG) by Artos Z (HANN). Breeder: George McCullough, Co Down. Owner: Jonathan Reape. Rider: Paddy Reape