LAOIS’S James Chawke registered some great results at the Summer Fort Classic at Thunderbird Show Park at Langley in Canada over the weekend, when he secured a number of top-five placings with the eight-year-old gelding Nandos S and with 11-year-old mare One Edition, both owned by Vanessa Mannix.

Chawke’s best result came in Saturday’s $10,000 1.45m Winning Round class, which he won with Nandos S.

Chawke, who is originally from Abbeyleix, only stepped the horse up to 1.40m level a week before - and won a national Grand Prix at the Summer Fort Welcome show at the same venue - and this time progressed again to jump 1.45m with continued success.

In an exciting class, where the lead changed hands frequently, Chawke and his mount stopped the clock in 40.31 on their second time out.

That was more than a second and a half ahead of runner-up Braden James (CAN) on Hermes Des Carmilles, who finished in 41.95.

Fellow Irish man James Brennan placed fifth with The Statesman.

“He is very quick naturally,” said Chawke of the promising Nandos S, after their win.

“Obviously Braden was fast. I wasn’t sure if I could get 10 [strides] one to two and, once I got that, I figured I could continue and do the eight [strides to the next] and then just sort of stay on it for the last few jumps.”

Chawke thinks highly of his mount and continued: “He’s not that much experience. Last Friday was his first 1.40m. Wednesday was his first 1.45m.

“So we’re just trying to teach him to jump bigger and also be efficient and a bit handier.

“I mean, he’s wildly talented. He’s a very big step.

“He’s quite quick in the air. He is careful and he jumps high, but he always keeps going across the jump, which I think helps you land with a bit of foot speed.”

In the ribbons

In Wednesday’s three-star 1.40m Happy Welcome class, Chawke rode Nandos S into second place in a small class of just five starters, but the rider went on to take two top-five placings in the $31,100 1.45m George and Dianne Tidball Legacy class. This time there were 26 starters and Chawke took first place riding One Edition, when jumping clear in a very fast time of 67.74 seconds, and also took fifth place with Nandos S in 74.44. Charlie Jones (GBR) and Morize F Z were runners-up when stopping the clock in 72.19.

Chawke proceeded to take the runner-up spot with One Edition in Friday’s $31,100 1.50m jump-off class, when the pair jumped double clear in a jump-off time of 42.15. Laura Hazlett (USA) won the class with Avianna in a time of 41.53.

Chawke scored another top-five finish in Sunday’s $75,000 1.50m Atco Cup Grand Prix with One Edition, in a class where only three of the 18 starters made it through to the jump-off. Chawke placed fourth as the fastest four-faulter in the first round. Canada’s Kassidy Keith won the class riding Havana.