KEVIN Sexton and Brian Cawley departed from Dublin Airport yesterday to represent Ireland in the annual jump jockey challenge in Australia.

Accompanied by team manager Sean Lynch, the duo will ride in two races at Murray Bridge on Wednesday and Morphetville next Saturday. Joining them on the Irish team will be Niki O’Shea and Paul Gallagher, who are among seven Irish jockeys currently sponsored to live and work in Australia.

The Australian team includes Tom Ryan from Galway, who is located in Victoria but rides in South Australia when required. The other Australian riders in the team are Steven Pateman (leading jumps rider in Australia for a number of years), Trent Wells and Aaron Lynch.

This will be the 39th clash between Australian and Irish teams of jump jockeys and the 28th consecutive year that an Irish team has been invited to Australia to participate. Team Ireland claimed the Irish v Australian Jumps Jockeys Challenge for a 24th time at Morphettville last September and the score in the series stands at 24 wins for Ireland and 13 for the Australians with one drawn series. The last time that an Australian team came to Ireland was in 2007 when the visitors proved successful.

Sexton is the current champion conditional jockey, winning the title with 22 wins, and Cawley earned his place by winning the J.P. McManus-supported Martinstown Opportunity Series.