TEAM Ireland continued their winning ways at the five-star Nations Cup show at La Baule in France over the weekend, when they took the top spot for the third time, with incredible jumping performances from the Irish riders against world-class opposition.

The Irish were drawn first of the 10 nations to jump and Michael Blake’s team of Bertram Allen with Qonquest De Rigo, Seamus Hughes Kennedy with ESI Rocky (ISH), Tom Wachman with Tabasco De Toxandria Z and Cian O’Connor with Bentley De Sury hit the ground running.

Wexford’s Bertram Allen was first in and got the first clear round on the board with the nine-year-old gelding Qonquest De Rigo. Kilkenny’s Seamus Hughes Kennedy was next and also jumped clear with the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse ESI Rocky (Stakkato Gold (HANN) x Clonaslea (BWP) by For Pleasure (HANN)), bred by Ennisnag Stud and owned by his mother Clare Hughes.

Tom Wachman and Tabasco De Toxandria Z finished with eight faults, which ended up the discard score, as anchorman Cian O’Connor and the 14-year-old Bentley De Sury jumped clear to leave Ireland on a zero score to share the lead at the halfway point with Belgium.

In round two, Allen repeated his first-round success to score a double clear, as did an on-form Hughes Kennedy. Wachman showed great determination and also kept all the poles intact this time round, which meant Ireland remained on a zero score without O’Connor having to jump again.

Belgium had been clear all the way in round one, but it was down to their final rider Gilles Thomas to jump clear in order to match Ireland’s zero score and require a jump-off... Four faults at the second fence, however, left Ireland as the clear winners with the only zero score and the Belgians having to settle for second place.

Brazil took third place on a final score of eight faults, while Sweden finished fourth, Britain fifth and Switzerland sixth of the 10 teams.

Phenomenal

Afterwards, a happy High Performance manager Blake said: “That was phenomenal. We came here with really high expectations but when we saw the start list, with some of the world’s biggest names in opposition, it put us back in our box a little bit.

“We knew how good we were, though, and we knew that if we kept jumping clear Belgium would have to match us and so would everybody else. The lads were magnificent and kept on ramping up the pressure on the rest, and eventually they couldn’t live with us.

“This is one that’s escaped us for a few years and I had it on my bucket list, so I’m thrilled. Obviously, it’s been a great week, having won last Sunday in Canada [four-star Nations Cup at Langley] and I couldn’t be happier.

“These lads are just brilliant – Cian and Bertram are incredible riders who have seen it all and know when to deliver, and I’m especially proud of Tom and Seamus – the two lads have come through our youth programme and have gained valuable experience through the EEF Series, and that showed today as they delivered at the highest level.

“The last time we won here Seamus was eight years old and Tom was six! It shows how strong this programme is that these two lads performed so well and we could have Shane Sweetnam here as our fifth rider.”

Allen, having jumped a fabulous double clear, commented: “Coming to La Baule is a highlight of the season, it’s great to win here. It’s a traditional show, one of the Rolex Series, which are always the best shows and are where all the best riders want to be.

Confident

“As Michael said, when we saw the start list yesterday, we knew it would be difficult but we knew we had a good team, good riders and good horses, so we were confident of a good result.”

The five-star show at La Baule in France ran from Thursday, June 5th until Sunday, June 8th and Irish riders made a very strong statement from the word go, with 20-year-old Tipperary rider Wachman winning the opening 1.45m Special Two-Phase class with the nine-year-old mare Hawaii when they were best of the 67 starters, jumping double clear in a second phase time of 29.57.

The following 1.50m speed class saw O’Connor take the runner-up position on board the nine-year-old gelding Gengis Kann De Londe in a time of 62.71 - just over a second behind American winner McLain Ward on High Star Hero (61.61).

Saturday saw another Irish win, when Cork native Shane Sweetnam finished on top of the podium in the 1.50m jump-off class riding the 14-year-old mare Gilona AO. Their jump-off time of 36.28 was a mere 0.28 seconds ahead of Belgian runner-up Abdel Said on Calvaro (36.56).