BILLY Twomey was best of the Irish in the five-star 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix at Royal Windsor on Sunday when he rode Jumping Jack van de Kalevallei into fifth place.

From a start list of 32, 10 remained fault-free after the first round and had the opportunity to jump again. Seven of them kept all the poles in place in round two, with Twomey stopping the clock in 40.16 seconds, which was good enough for fifth place and a generous prize of €35,000.

The top prize of €125,000 went to Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet riding Bond Jamesbond de Hay, who set an unbeatable time of 37.18.

In the ribbons

Twomey rode Ace of Hearts Z into eighth place in the five-star 1.55m jump-off class at Royal Windsor last Friday. There were 31 starters in the class, of whom 15 jumped clear in the first round, but only 13 of those jumped again. The jump-off saw seven combinations complete double clears, with Twomey having an unfortunate pole down in 40.28 to finish fastest of the four-faulters. The class was won by Jack Whitaker (GBR) on Valmy de La Lande, who were double clear in 39.40.

Saturday saw Michael Duffy steering Balouwinsky into fifth place in the 22-strong two-round 1.50m class, when they were among seven who proceeded to round two. Duffy jumped double clear in 38.11 seconds with the nine-year-old gelding. Lorenzo de Luca won the class for Italy riding Nector Vd Bisschop when double clear in a second-round time of 33.77.

Duffy was fifth again in the 1.55m jump-off class, this time riding the nine-year-old gelding Be Sky Hawk. Of the 29 starters, only two managed to jump clear within what was evidently a very tight allocated time in the first round, with Martin Fuchs (SUI) on Commissar Pezi the deserving winners, as the only combination to jump double clear (35.19). Duffy incurred two time-penalties in round one, but still took home €3,500 in prize money for fifth place.

On Sunday, Shane Breen finished in the top 10 of the 1.50m class, when placing ninth on board BP Arctic Blue with a clear round in 61.47.

Luxembourg’s Victor Bettendorf won the class with Encore Toi du Linon in a time of 58.08.