IRELAND were unbeatable in the four-star 1.55m Nations Cup of Poland at Sopot on Friday afternoon, with the team of Shane Breen on Scarteen, Alexander Butler on Ti Amo B Z, Max Wachman on Fancy de Kergane and Billy Twomey on Ace of Hearts Z finishing first of the 14 teams taking part.

Breen was first in for Taylor Vard’s Irish squad and picked up four faults, which proved to be the discard score. Butler rode a perfect clear round, which Wachman emulated. Twomey clocked the fastest time of the team, but added four faults to put Ireland on a total of four at the mid-point of the competition, at that stage sitting behind Italy on zero and equal with Japan, who were also on four.

Round two saw some fortunes change, but the Irish squad remained consistent. Breen picked up another four faults and this time Butler did so too. However, Wachman completed an excellent double clear round and Twomey improved upon his first-round score to jump clear second time round. This put Ireland on a second-round score of four, giving an overall score of eight faults.

Argentina had improved on their first-round score to also finish on eight overall, requiring a jump-off to decide the winner. Breen and Scarteen were the chosen pair to jump off for Ireland and performed when it really mattered to jump a fantastic clear round. Jose Maria Larocca on Chris went for Argentina and picked up four faults to leave Ireland as the winners and put Argentina in the silver medal position. Japan completed the podium in third place. Following the win, Vard said: “I always knew we had a great chance, but halfway through the second round, I was starting to think we’d be lucky to finish on the podium, but our last two riders, Max and Billy, were just incredible.

“We never gave up, and then Shane went in and won it for us. Congratulations too to Argentina and Japan too, it was a great fight from start to finish, but I’m just delighted for our riders, horses, their owners and grooms.”

In the ribbons

The four-star Nations Cup show at Sopot in Poland was held from June 11th to 14th. Four-star classes commenced on Friday, with the 1.40m Marshal of Pomeranian Voivodeship Trophy speed class, where Breen rode CSF Thomascourt Zena into sixth place.

Butler rode Tequila des Sequoias Z into fifth place in the 1.50m Polish Equestrian Federation Trophy and Walder Group speed class.

Billy Twomey and Ace of Hearts Z concluded the show in fine style when they won the four-star 1.60m Lotto Grand Prix. There were 50 combinations on the start list, with the best 13 proceeding to the jump-off and four of them completed double clear rounds.

Twomey’s second round time of 41.62 was more than a second ahead of his nearest challenger, Italy’s Roberto Previtali on Quirinus 27, who had to be content with second place in 42.63, while third went to Portugal’s Ricardo Benzinho Karle da Costa on Kirocco in 43.05.