THERE were five-star wins at the Longines Global Champions Tour of Vienna for two Irish riders last weekend, as Tom Wachman with Do It Easy (Coolmore Showjumping) and Ciarán Nallon with Little Special In Red M (Beerbaum Stables) prevailed over elite fields.

Wachman and Do It Easy bagged another top-flight triumph when winning the first individual speed class of the Longines Global Champions League team event on Friday.

The 21-year-old from Tipperary, who is the number four ranked U25 athlete in the world, won silver team and individual medals at the European Young Rider Championships with the 13-year-old gelding this year.

In the past, the duo have enjoyed five-star success in Rome, London and Dublin and they added Vienna to their list of winning capital cities when proving accurate and fastest in the 1.60m competition.

Philipp Weishaupt (GER), with Oreo DR, had held the lead a long while as the third pairing into the arena, setting a target of clear in 73.97 that proved beyond combination after combination.

It looked like it might be enough to secure ultimate honours until the arrival of Wachman and Do It Easy, as the third-last duo to have a go. Do It Easy lived up to his name, displaying that wonderful athleticism as he glided around the track, taking out tenths of a second without any noticeable effort.

Apart from one little rub, which did not dislodge a pole, he was foot-perfect over the 15 jumps from a dozen obstacles and, with his jockey guiding him expertly, they took more than a second off Weishaupt’s mark, clocking a lightning 72.93 for a commanding triumph.

The pair would conclude the week with an eighth-place return from the LGCT Grand Prix of Vienna on Sunday, qualifying for the jump-off with another opening round clear, before they had two fences down in the tiebreaker.

Ciaran capitalises

Ciaran Nallon continued his prolific run on the Longines Global Champions Tour, bagging the 1.45m two-phase class on Saturday afternoon with Little Special In Red M, their time of 26.18 in the speed section, more than a second ahead of the 27.23 recorded by Sanne Thijssen (NED), with Os le Petit Cheval.

It was a stunning effort by Nallon and especially his chesnut mare, who is only eight, but showed a clean pair of heels to a much more experienced opposition.

Nallon has made a huge impression this year since joining Beerbaum Stables and the Mayo man followed up this 1.45m victory with a fifth-placed finish in the night’s second five-star class, the 1.50m jump-off competition, with Christians Carado (Beerbaum Stables).

Denis Lynch and Michael Pender, riding for the New York Empire team, started off well in second place after round one of the team competition, but dropped down to seventh after Pender picked up 12 jumping penalties in the second round. New York Empire are still placed third in the overall teams’ standings on 185 points, while Lynch is the highest-ranked Irish individual on 165 points.

Cian O’Connor and Tom Wachman were on the sixth-placed Riyadh Knights team at the weekend, who now lie in 14th overall as a team. The next stop on the tour will be Rome.