LOUTH’S Mark McAuley was in fine form as the Longines League of Nations moved to St Tropez-Gassin in France over the weekend. He took the runner-up spot in Friday’s five-star 1.60m Grand Prix at St Tropez with the nine-year-old stallion Rossi vd Heffinck. A start list of 43 saw the best 11 from round one proceeding to round two, where only McAuley and Brazil’s Marlon Modolo Zanotelli on Charly Heart completed double clear rounds. McAuley’s time of 44.85 wasn’t quite fast enough to beat Zanotelli’s 43.30, so the Brazilian took the €92,580 top prize, but McAuley pocketed a very generous €61,720 for second place. Henrik von Eckermann (SWE) on King Edward completed the podium in third (€46,290).
On Saturday, Trevor Breen and Konrad Obolensky placed eighth in the three-star Big Tour 1.45m class. From a start list of 84, 19 combinations jumped clear in the first round, with 15 of them proceeding to jump again. Six completed double clear rounds, with Breen being among the fastest four-faulters in the jump-off to place eighth. It was a home win for France’s Cedric Angot on Harmony de Grandry.
The fourth leg of the Longines League of Nations saw 10 teams lining out to do battle and the French home side proved unbeatable when finishing on a total of four to take the win.
Only the best
Horse Sport Ireland High Performance Jumping Manager Jessica Kürten had selected her Irish team as Trevor Breen on Highland President, Mark McAuley on Clooney van Spalbeek Z, Shane Breen on Scarteen and Billy Twomey on Ace Of Hearts Z. As this was the last qualifier before the final in Barcelona next month (October 1st-4th) and with only the best eight teams qualifying to compete there, Ireland wanted to be sure of their chance to compete at the final.
Prior to St Tropez, Ireland were sitting in third place in the overall standings on 205 points, behind leaders Germany (230) and second-placed Great Britain on 225.
The first round at St Tropez saw both Trevor and Shane Breen, along with McAuley, picking up four faults each, while anchorman Twomey jumped a lovely clear round. This put the team on a score of eight and into fifth place at the halfway stage. Brazil held the lead at that point, as the only team on a zero score.
With the format dictating that only three riders are required for round two, Shane Breen did not jump again. The second round saw Trevor jumping a super clear, while McAuley equalled his four faults from round one. The pressure was on Twomey to complete Ireland’s scoresheet and he was unfortunate to collect eight faults, giving the team a second-round score of 12 and a total of 20, keeping them in fifth place overall.
The French team of Nina Mallevaey, Antoine Ermann, Simon Delestre and Julien Epaillard claimed victory on a total of four faults, with Brazil in second on eight faults and Belgium in third, also on eight faults, but in a slightly slower time.
On the overall leaderboard, France’s winning points at St Tropez moved them ahead of previous leaders Germany, to finish on a total of 290 points. Germany and Great Britain finished joint second on 275, just ahead of Brazil in fourth on 270, with Ireland in fifth on 265. Belgium finished sixth on 245, while the USA and Italy finished joint seventh on 230 to secure their places in Barcelona. Switzerland and the Netherlands finished outside the top eight and therefore haven’t qualified for the final.