CAROLINE Powell capped an excellent weekend at Lisgarvan International by adding a second victory for New Zealand, this time in the NutriScience CCI3*-L with Chris Mann’s Greenacres Special Touch (ISH).

The eight-year-old gelding, bred in Co Meath by Michael Callery, was making his debut at this level and showed all the class of his family. Callery also bred Powell’s 2023 Badminton CCI5*-L winner Greenacres Special Cavalier, and the New Zealand rider is clearly excited about his latest graduate.

“He’s actually a relation of Cav’s, and I think he has the potential to be as good as her too,” said Powell after her win.

Greenacres Special Touch had been well in touch after the first phase, sitting second on 30.9 behind Powell’s other ride, Rathnageera River (ISH). The latter, bred by Andrew Stamp and also owned by Chris and Michelle Mann, led on 30.4 but an early refusal at fence 6B, the Castle to Corner, ended their chances of a podium finish.

That left the door open for others to challenge. Among them was Elizabeth Power with her own and Ivan Hatton’s Balladeer Clintender (ISH). The gelding, by Kah Clintender out of Lady of Lanarkshire, was the only horse in the class to finish inside the time on cross-country day. Their speedy round propelled them to the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday’s show jumping, but three poles down proved costly and dropped them back to second, handing the win back to Powell.

Completing the podium was Jessica Reid with her mother Martha’s Ballyorney Bubbles, a nine-year-old by Omega Star. Produced carefully by Reid over the past three years, they were possibly disappointed with their dressage mark of 48.2. However, they put it behind them in the two jumping phases. On cross-country day, they added just 0.8 time penalties to their score and only one pole on the ground in the show jumping arena left them in third place in the final standings.

Australian rider Kevin McNab had also been well-placed after dressage with Lone Ranger, lying third overnight. However, a tough final day in the show jumping ring cost them dearly, with 20 jumping faults and 10.8 in time penalties pushing them down to fifth.

Slotting in just ahead of them in fourth was Jessica O’Driscoll, who impressed with her own Lux Dam Good (ISH). This was the horse’s first attempt at three-star long format, and this performance suggests a bright future at the level.