STEPHEN Gibbons (18) galloped to win the opening Premier Performance National Grand Prix of the 2025 season and the first of his young career to date at Duffy’s Equestrian Centre in Co Galway last Saturday.

Premier Performance has come on board as the new title sponsor this year and, supplemented by the sponsor on the day, the locally-based Kilcolgan Castle, a decent prize fund of €5,000 was on offer and attracted a start list of 33 to Mark Duffy’s venue where his brother Paul Duffy was on course-designing duty.

Some 22 of the starters made it through to the jump-off which saw the fences raised and 11 produced a double clear. Fastest of those and the only one to beat the 40-second mark in 39.41 was young rider Stephen Gibbons from Claremorris in Co Mayo, riding his mother Jane’s 13-year-old gelding Cassius Z (Canabis Z x Up to Date M) to win €1,500 in prize money.

“That’s my first National Grand Prix win,” said a delighted Gibbons afterwards. “I knew it was going to be a quick jump-off with so many in it. It went up [in height] a good bit for the second round and that suited me. "I said I would go in and give it a shot. He jumps better in a jump-off when the blood is up, so thankfully it paid off.

“The last three fences in the jump-off suited him. I got a good tight turn back to the vertical at the third last and had a good gallop to the last two oxers and that is what he likes, to run and jump. He has been a great horse for me and I have to thank my parents for getting him. We have a lot of younger horses at the minute, so it is nice to have one to go in and jump a bigger class on. He seems to have found his best form now so hopefully it will continue.”

On his plans for the coming weeks, Gibbons added: “I won’t necessarily go after the league but I will jump it whenever it suits; it is good to step up from the Spring Tour to the National. If he is in good form, we might do one or two of the 1.50s too. He has his qualifier for the RDS young riders this Sunday in The Meadows and we will go on to do the two weeks in Mullingar and go from there.”

Derwin in form

Back competing on Irish soil after spending the winter competing in Florida with Darragh Kenny, Francis Derwin Jnr slotted into second and third places. He finished runner-up on his father Francis Snr’s nine-year-old Zavall VDL mare Lois, who was having her first registered show in Ireland but has plenty of experience at the level, having been produced in Portugal by Duarte Seabra. They broke the beams in 40 seconds flat.

He finished third with another nine-year-old, the Sheila White-bred Sambuca H who is by Simba out of Kan Kan Do (Kannan). They produced a clear round against the clock in 40.10.

Travel

Sven Hadley didn’t have too far to travel from his Craughwell base to Duffy’s where he slotted into fourth with the eight-year-old Hadley Sporthorses-owned gelding Make It Easy HSH (Don’t Touch It M x Landos) in a time of 40.68 seconds. Hadley was also sixth with the recently approved 10-year-old stallion Phenomene Bleu VDM (Diamant de Semilly x Nabab De Reve) when clear in 41.29.

Splitting his two rides was Gemma Phelan, who also had two in the jump-off and was clear with both, finishing fifth aboard Baden Powell’s nine-year-old home-bred gelding Curraghraigue Jack Bro (Orestus x Errigal Flight) and seventh with her own eight-year-old stallion Vicarstown (Luidam x Darco).

The third leg of the series returns to Galway this week, as Galway Equestrian Centre plays host on Monday, May 5th.