Coyle and Swail join Cork athlete as winners at MLSJ Toronto
Shane Sweetnam is in the hottest form of his career since the dawn of 2026, and having excelled at the European Championships, returned to individual fare with another five-star Grand Prix success, this time in Canada on Saturday night.
The World No 5 also combined with fellow Irishman, Daniel Coyle, and local hero Erynn Ballard to take out the first leg of the lucrative Major League Show Jumping team event at the MLSJ Toronto Show in Palgrave 24 hours earlier, Coyle coming up with the decisive contribution in the gold medal jump-off.
Victory in the $500,000 Kubota Grand Prix with Coriaan Van Klapscheut Z (above), the horse he co-owns with Voquest, is the latest in a long line of strong performances by Sweetnam. It comes on the back of a good European Championships that could have been so much better with even a modicum of good fortune for him and the Patrick Connolly-bred Irish Sport Horse James Kann Cruz (Gizmo Partners).
It also marked a Grand Prix double on the night for Irish athletes, as Conor Swail – who agonisingly missed out on the jump-off for the five-star feature when fourth with one time fault on Casturano (Conall Murray) – combined with Nadal Hero & DB (Mannon Farm) to win the two-star highlight.
There were strong performance at the highest grade too by Mark McAuley and Denis Lynch as the Longines Global Champions Tour marked 20 years on home territory in Valkenswaard, The Netherlands.
But not for the first time this year, it was Sweetnam proving the headline act. The 45-year-old from Castlemagner, Co Cork reminded everyone that jumping is the name of the game with the only double clear in the BFL Ring at Caledon Equestrian Park to land the €106,732.50 first prize.
World No 2 Kent Farrington was best of the rest with four faults in 38.6 Descartes SR.
Thirty combinations took on the 1.60m track and with the triple combination late in the track causing trouble for a number of the night’s contenders, only three were able to navigate it flawlessly.
Ilan Bluman (COL) had one rail down with Acajou so Sweetnam had a decision to make, while cognisant that he was riding a horse that remains very inexperienced at this level.
“This is only his second five-star Grand Prix and the last one he did was in Monterrey (MLSJ Finals), which he was also clear in” said Sweetnam of his mount, who also jumped a clear to help Ireland finish second in the Aga Khan Cup at the RDS last month.
“(The strategy) is something I’m always trying to figure out, as I finish second to Kent a lot,” he noted wryly.
Not this time, as Sweetnam and Coriaan Van Klapscheut Z stopped the clock in 39.08 seconds to apply the pressure on his American opponent, and by searching for that extra tenth of a second, an error was forced.
Having been on the podium three times in this Grand Prix – second and third (twice), this was a magnificent conclusion to a week in which his debut for the Roadrunners ended in triumph while partnering Pia Maria H (Sweetnam/Seabrook).
International competition got under way on Thursday with the quarter-of-a-million dollar qualifier for the five-star Grand Prix and Casturano showcased his wellbeing to Swail by finishing fourth of 31 with a double clear in a class won by Farrington (USA) and Descartes SR. Daniel Bluman (ISR) with Corbie VV and Nina Mallevaey (FRA) with My Clementine completed the podium in a high-class affair.
Two other Irish athletes made the jump-off and Jordan Coyle was desperately unlucky not to be triumphant. Ariso posted the fasted time of 41.48 but had one rail down.
That gave them seventh, just ahead of Sweetnam and Coriaan Van Klapscheut Z, who has registered four faults in the definitive round. Clearly that outing left the 10-year-old stallion spot on for what lay ahead.
On Friday, Coyle guided VDL Mourinho (Ariel Grange) to third in the five-star speed class won by Daniel Bluman, with Hummer Z. They went clear in 70.81 (above), which was just under three-quarters of a second off the second-place mark of Carly Campbell Cooper (CAN) with U2 Westleven Z. The runners-up were just eight-hundredths of a second off the 69.99 standard that proved victorious.
The class was the first leg of the $325,000 MLSJ Cabana Coast Team Competition and the Derry native’s contribution was critical in providing his Roadrunners outfit with a platform to overall victory.
Ballard and Ashley De Talm also went clear in 73.02 but seven faults in 79.42 from World No 3 Shane Sweetnam and Pia Maria H made things a little more difficult.
In the Jump-Off Round comprising four teams, Ballard returned for another clear and then Sweetnam and Pia Maria H illustrated that the opening effort was an aberration, with a faultless return too.
That placed it in the hands and hooves of Coyle and Mourinho, and they delivered the goods in the Medal Round, floating across the ground and over jumps to go clear in 44.32, compared to the 44.59 target set by the Trelawney Trailblazers’ Charlotte Jacobs (USA) with the Irish Sport Horse Rincoola Milsean, who was bred in Longford by the late Harold McGahern.
“Daniel knew what he had to do when he went in. He’s one of the fastest riders out there and planned it perfectly,” said Sweetnam.
Conor Swail and Nadal Hero & DB completed a memorable few days in the land of the Maple Leaf by following up Sweetnam’s five-star Grand Prix triumph with victory in the two-star Willow Equestrian FEI GP. It was the latest in a burgeoning catalogue of successes at this level for the nascent combination.
Farrington, Mallevaey, Lillie Keenan (USA) and Ballard were among the 13 athletes involved in the jump-off but while Farrington, with Vixen, Olivia Sweetnam (USA) with Epic, and Ballard, with Ginger Ask, all recorded faster times than the Down man and his newfound star, they could not leave all the fences intact.
And of the six double clears, Swail and Nadal were comfortably the quickest, stopping the clock in 36 seconds.
Back in Europe, McAuley guided L’Arc En Ciel Z (Yannick Jorand) to the runner-up slot in the opening Global Champions League individual class on Friday afternoon, as the LGCT returned to the Longines Tops International Arena.
McAuley and Jorand’s 13-year-old stallion posted an outstanding clear round through the 1.60m course in 70.16 seconds, to edge in front of Arne van Heel, who was the best of the home ranks in third with Keaton HV, in 70.71.
There was no stopping Philipp Weishaupt however, the German and his exciting nine-year-old Callao L blitzing to a lightning quick clear in 67 seconds flat.
Denis Lynch entered this show off the back of winning at five-star level with Brooklyn Heights in Brussels the previous week and he saddled another of his 17-year-olds, Cordial (Onyx Consulting/Tipperary’s Finest) to go clear in 81.60 in the GCL First Team Competition, which when combined with the quickest faultless round recorded by World No 3, Scott Brash (GBR) with Hello Chadora Lady, put New York Empire ahead of the team standings at the half-way juncture.
The Tipperary pilot guided Mr Newman (Parco Sport Horses) in the Second Team Competition, while McAuley was introduced in place of Brash, riding the promising nine-year-old stallion Rossi vd Heffinck (SCEA La Tuiliere).
Both recorded nice rounds but had four faults each, however, and while there were only nine clear rounds, those returns dropped the team down to fifth in the class, leaving them sixth in the overall standings.
Lynch and Cordial would finish the week with an excellent seventh in the LGCT Grand Prix, after making the jump-off but having a rail down second time around. Brazil’s Yuri Mansur emerged triumphant with the evergreen 18-year-old Vitiki.
McAuley was in the ribbons once more on Saturday, when propelling Rossi vd Heffinck to third (above) in a 1.50m jump-off class won by Eduardo Pereira de Menezes (BRA) with H5 Messentus PS.
Nine of the 35 combatants survived the initial 16-jump test but McAuley and his horse were up against it as the pathfinders in the eight-fence tiebreaker.
The Louth man made a tremendous stab at setting a tough target, and apart from De Menezes, only silver medallist Kevin Jochems (NED), with Casquetto van de Helle, could better their time of 39.68.
There was four-star competition in the German city of Münster and that is close to a second home for Ciaran Nallon, who has flourished since becoming part of the Beerbaum Stables team.
The Mayo jockey capitalised on the familiarity by guiding his patron’s Christians Carado to third in the Preis Der Brauerei Brinkhoff, a 1.50m speed class. The pair left all the obstacles intact and stopped the clock in 69.14, less than a second behind runner-up Marcus Ehning (GER) and Stargold. Ehning’s German compatriot Hans Thorben Rüder ensured it was a celebratory contest for home fans, taking the honours with the sprightly 17-year-old Singu.
There was a silver medal for Christian Coyle at the three-star show in Saugerties on Wednesday, the Derry native and cousin of the aforementioned siblings, Daniel and Jordan, partnering his own 13-year-old gelding Chicago CM to a blemish-free score in the FEI Jumper Classic at the Douglas Elliman GP Stadium.
On Thursday, Paul O’Shea (left on the podium above) and Spy were denied victory by 11-hundredths of a second in the 1.45m Silver Oak FEI Speed in Traverse City. Karl Cook (USA) and Foxy de la Roque were best at Flintfields Horse Park.
Cook and his 11-year-old mare stopped the clock clear in 61.37 seconds, edging out the Irish combination by tiny margins.
O’Shea was back on the podium 24 hours later when steering Manglar LS La Silla (Hipico LS La Silla) to third in the 1.45m Silver Oak Welcome Jumper. The Kildimo, Co Limerick athlete elicited another double clear from his partner and a jump-off time of 36.11, in a class won by American Ali Wolff with Hesperide Du Breuil in 35.10.
Ivan Dalton bagged a three-star podium when combining with Floris RZ (Butler Court Stables) for the bronze in Azelhof on Friday. The Kilkenny rider and his nine-year-old were blemish-free over two rounds and a composed effort in the 13-strong jump-off, in a time of 37.03, secured a very good finish in a field of 80. Victory went to Julien Epaillard (FRA) with Le Coultre de Muze in 34.89.
BREEDING
JAMES KANN CRUZ (ISH) – 2013 gelding by Kannan (KWPN) out of CSF Telly Cruz (ISH) by Cruising (ISH)[TIH]. Breeder: Patrick Connolly, Co Galway. Owner: Gizmo Partners, LLC. Rider: Shane Sweetnam (IRL).
RINCOOLA MILSEAN (ISH) – 2013 gelding by Aldatus Z (OLD) out of Rincoola Abu (ISH)[TIH] by Cruising (ISH)[TIH]. Breeder: Harold McGahern, Co Longford. Owner: North Star. Rider: Charlotte Jacobs (USA).