ALEXANDER Butler and Dekato, a Dutch-bred gelding owned by the rider and show jumper Neal Fearon, won the one-star €10,000 Grand Prix, sponsored by the the auction night held during Cavan International, on Sunday evening at the international show.

A jump-off time of 33.11, the fastest of the seven clear rounds, saw Butler claim victory. This came just two days after the pair won the second international class on Friday.

This was Butler’s second home international Grand Prix win this season, as he also won the two-star feature class at Mullingar International Horse Show in June with Eldorado.

By Upgrade and out of Windekind II by Stakkato, Butler produced the 10-year-old Dekato as a young horse before he was a notable lot in the 2015 Going for Gold sale in Goresbridge, where he was sold for €250,000 to British show jumper Jessie Drea.

The horse return to Fearon’s care in late 2017 and Butler has been reunited with the horse since April 2018. Having just returned from Vilamoura, where they placed third in a two-star 1.45m, their form was good coming into the class.

“We (himself and Neal Fearon) always thought a lot of the horse. His record as a youngster was great. He did well in Cavan, Dublin and Lanaken. I think he is the best young horse I’ve ever had,” Butler said afterwards.

“He was sold to the UK and it didn’t work out, but now that we have him back we are confident that he will be the horse we always thought he was capable of being.

“He is so competitive, it’s great to have a horse like him in the yard. I think this is only the start of it for him. He went really well in Portugal and I thought he was due a good win.

“He felt great on Sunday. He has a lot more in him so we’re excited to see what his future holds.”

The Co Kildare-based rider added: “The Grand Prix course was plenty big and technical; but there were no major problems in one place so it was a fair track and produced the right amount of clears.

“I don’t really know where I made up the time. I had watched Jordan (Coyle) go and I knew he hadn’t left very much room to catch him, he really put it up to the rest of us and I think I was just lucky to be just slightly faster.”

Another rider in good form, having produced a Grand Prix win with Charlton Clio just last month in Portmore, Jonthan Smyth guided the 12-year-old mare to a foot perfect clear round and their time of 33.48 was just fractions slower than Butler to claim the runner-up spot.

Jordan Coyle was also coming off the back on a recent Grand Prix win and having spent some time riding in America, made his presence at home known when guided Chuckles (Cicero Z x Flamenco de Semilly) to third place after breaking the beam in 33.80.

Fourth went to Robert Harrisson and the 10-year-old Danish-bred mare Landlystes Rubina (Heartbeat x Quantum) in a time of 35.09. Norman Allen’s nine-year-old home-bred gelding Ardragh Cool Touch (Out of Touch x Cavalier Royale), ridden by Neal Fearon, slotted into fifth place in a time of 36.72.

Fearon took over the ride of the gelding in July and this was their first international Grand Prix placing.

Young rider Seamus Hughes Kennedy and the 14-year-old German-bred gelding Louis D’Or (Landcapitol x Grannus) took sixth place in 36.73, just 0.01 behind Fearon. Formerly ridden by Olive Clarke, Hughes Kennedy’s mother Clare bought Louis D’Or a year ago as her son, who placed third in the International Pony Grand Prix in Lyon just the week previous, makes the move into senior competitions.

The final double clear round came from Richard Kerins and Korena Byrne’s seven-year-old Pacino gelding Small Change. They stopped the clock at 41.47.

The Leading Rider prize went to Galway’s Olive Clarke after a host of good results throughout the week, while Puissance winner Nano Healy was awarded the Benny Kuehnle talented young rider prize, which was judged by Benny’s father, Hans.