THE Longines FEI European Championships in A Coruña, Spain got off to a fabulous start for Ireland on Wednesday when Daniel Coyle stormed to victory in the opening competition. Coyle is riding as an individual and now sits top of that leaderboard with Ariel Grange’s mare Legacy, while the Irish team are in seventh place after a solid first day.
Coyle was the 67th rider into the arena at the Spanish venue with his Olympic partner and, without taking the trickiest turn of the day back to the spooky wall at fence six, he kept up the pace all around Santiago Varela’s track to cross the finish line in 73.93 seconds and go straight to the top of the leaderboard. With 22 left to go, only Germany’s Richard Vogel and United Touch S came close, also breaking the 74-second barrier (73.96) to sit in second.
Coyle starts the second round on a score of zero but only a fence separates the top 37 combinations. Speaking about his role this week, he said: “I was in Spruce Meadows for the summer and Legacy doesn’t like it there… she hasn’t been in great form. It was a risk to bring her even as an individual because her form hasn’t been great of late, but I said to Michael [Blake] I think she will be good here. I was happy to come as an individual, so it was very straight forward.
“I’m not sure she will go to the end if she is not in medal contention… whatever I feel is the right set up for her for the next show, should it be Dublin or somewhere else, we will see how it goes.
“When you are an individual, you have to take risks. I didn’t take the turn to the wall. If was a jump-off, no question [I would] but when there are 14 jumps, 17 fences, it’s a long way to the end,” Coyle added.
Land Rover to Ferrari
Ireland was drawn last of the 18 teams in the opening qualifier and Michael Blake selected Denis Lynch, who was a late call-up following the withdrawal of Cian O’Connor, as pathfinder with Vistogrand, owned by Tipperary's Finest Est. The 12-year-old stallion produced a solid start when clear in 78.58 seconds and they sit in 20th individually (2.32).
Lynch commented: “It was a last-minute call-up and I was delighted to get the call-up. We did exactly what we thought we could do, he was nice and relaxed and came out of there very, very good. You can’t make a Land Rover into a Ferarri! He is a very big horse, he is a steady horse, so I can only take so much out of him. [I’m] very happy with that.”
On his championship debut, 22-year-old Seamus Hughes Kennedy was next in with the Irish Sport Horse ESI Rocky (Stakkato Gold x For Pleasure), bred by Ennisnag Stud and owned by his mother Clare. That pair looked at ease in the ring and produced a foot-perfect round to finish in a time of 78.26 seconds. They hold 18th place individually overnight on 2.16.
Good start
“It’s good to get the first day out of the way and to be started. He was very good. To go quick the first day, it is a bit different to what I am used to, but I thought I was able to move him up enough without letting him go too much. He handled it well, I am delighted. It’s a good start,” said Hughes Kennedy.
Talking about the travel from Kilkenny to Northern Spain, he added: “We took the long boat and opened the lorry up like a stable for him and he was very happy. He felt very good once he got here.”
Next in was Bertram Allen with Ballywalter Stables Ltd’s nine-year-old gelding Qonquest de Rigo. The pair finished with four faults at fence 10, adding four seconds to their time and completing in 84.21 on a score of 5.14.
“It didn’t just go as smooth as I would like. He is not so experienced at one-round speed so I knew I was going to struggle a bit today but he is jumping fantastic and hopefully he can do a good job the next two days,” commented Allen.
The very last rider into the ring on day one was anchorman Darragh Kenny with Carol A Sollak’s 13-year-old gelding Eddy Blue. The pair set off with intent and looked like posting a fast time but a difficult distance to fence 10 also saw them add four seconds (81.76) to complete on 3.91.
With Allen’s score discarded, Ireland is on a team total of 8.39 after the first round. After a cracking first day with two riders in the top five, Britain head the team standings on 3.96 ahead of Germany (4.19) and Belgium (4.61).
It is all to play for tomorrow when the first round of the team final kicks off at 3pm local time (2pm Irish time).