KILKENNY’S Tim Brennan certainly made his trip to Morocco worthwhile, when he won Sunday’s four-star 1.55m Grand Prix on board the talented 10-year-old mare Diadema Della Caccia. There were 42 on the start list, with the best 11 from the first round proceeding to jump again.

The testing track saw no one jump double clear within the time allowed, with Brennan jumping clear in the first round and managing to keep all the fences standing in 54.67 seconds, but incurring three time penalties, in round two. This was good enough for the win and Brennan was delighted.

“This result tops everything. Winning my first four-star Grand Prix here, it’s a dream come true, I can hardly believe it. My mare is naturally quick, but today all I had to do was jump double clear. I tried to play it safe, maybe a bit too safe, took a few wide turns, and ended up with three time faults, something that had never happened to me before with her. Fortunately, she jumped incredibly in both rounds. She gave me everything,” Brennan said.

In the ribbons

The four-star Morocco Royal Tour fixture at El Jadida saw show jumping classes running from Thursday, October 2nd until Sunday, October 5th. Four Irish riders had made the journey to take part, namely Ethen Ahearne, Rhys Williams, Susan Fitzpatrick and Brennan.

Rhys Williams got off the mark on Friday, when he rode Conthanja into fourth place in the 49-strong four-star 1.40m two-phase class. Williams was among 23 combinations to jump clear in the first round, with 21 of them jumping a second time and 17 remaining clear until the end. Williams’ time of 26.04 seconds wasn’t quite fast enough to catch French winner Nathalie Mack on Baccara de l’Aubepine, who stopped the clock in 23.85, just a fraction ahead of fellow French competitor Jeremy Le Roy on Falkira de Mormoulins in 23.97. Brennan and Diadema Della Caccia also jumped double clear to place eighth in 26.96.

A start list of 30 took on Saturday’s four-star 1.45m class, with Susan Fitzpatrick on Valisco PS jumping clear in 70.60 to place ninth. The class was won by Abdelkebir Ouaddar (MAR) on Festival d’Argouges in a very fast time of 59.73.

There were two Irish riders in the top 10 of the four-star 1.50m class on Saturday, where Brennan on Coblue PS placed eighth in 64.69, while Fitzpatrick was among the fastest four-faulters with Lovely Stassi PS to take 10th place in 61.23. The win went to Abdullah Alsharbatly (KSA) on Alamo (59.87), while Molly Hughes Bravo, riding for Portugal, on the nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding HHS Tokyo, placed fifth.