IRISH riders were on form at the five-star ‘National’ show at Spruce Meadows in Canada over the weekend (June 10th to 14th).

The 1.55m Recon Metal Cup jump-off class saw an all-Irish podium, when Derry’s Daniel Coyle claimed a fantastic one-two with Farrel and Urville Z respectively, with Down’s Conor Swail filling third with the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Clonterm Obolensky (Cornet Obolensky x She Has The Lux by Lux Z), bred by Brian Duff.

Swail also placed seventh in the class with Theo 160. From the 46 starters, there were 12 first-round clears, but only five completed the jump-off without fault.

Swail got off the mark in Thursday’s 1.50m Francis Family Cup jump-off class, when he rode Kazelli VDL into the runner-up spot with one of only two double clears in the class of 25. Swail’s time of 35.69 just couldn’t match Jos Verlooy (BEL) on Parise van den Dael, who stopped the clock in 34.84 to take first place.

In Saturday’s 1.60m RBC Grand Prix of Canada, Coyle and Farrel were back on the podium again, when they secured third place. Just six of the 30 starters had jumped clear first time out to book a place in the jump-off, where only two remained fault-free - namely Mark Bluman (COL) on Landon de Nyze (44.44) and Jos Verlooy (BEL) on Nixon van’t Meulenhof (49.02). Coyle and Farrel recorded the fastest jump-off time, but a pole down meant they had to settle for third place. Swail placed eighth with Clonterm Obolensky.

Coyle and Urville Z placed sixth in Sunday’s 1.50m ATB Cup jump-off class from a start list of 33.

Meanwhile, in the two-star classes, Coyle rode Nord Face VDL to win both Saturday’s 1.40m Maritime Travel Cup and the 1.40m Mercer Cup jump-off class on Thursday, after taking fourth place in Wednesday’s 1.40m Friends of the Meadows one-round class on board VDL Mourinho.