THE Irish Sport Horse gelding Dougie Douglas, who was sold for a record €1.4 million at the Goresbridge Supreme Sale in Co Wexford last November, scored his first win with his new rider Katie Dinan in Florida last Sunday night.

Dinan and Dougie Douglas, who was formerly ridden by Britain’s Holly Gillot, jumped to victory in the $50,000 National Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival.

Dutch supremo Harrie Smolders had set the target in a three horse jump-off with Aiyetoro. Dinan and the Grant Road Partners-owned Dougie Douglas knocked over two seconds off Smolder time before last to go, Wilton Porter, knocked a rail with Patriot to confirm the Irish son of VDL Douglas as the winner.

Afterwards Dinan paid tribute to Holly Gillot who produced Dougie Douglas to Nations Cup level.

“I must say that she did an unbelievable job producing him because he is a joy to ride, and he seems to love show jumping as much as I do. He has had a lot of experience on big grass fields, so it was always my plan to jump him in the Grand Prix here on the grass field this week. I am very happy with how it went. I could not have hoped for it to go better and he loved being out there.”

Dinan continued, “There were only three in it, so I knew I was going to get a good ribbon no matter what, and it seemed like a good moment to try to be competitive. I saw Harrie go before me, and I knew that he is always a very fast rider, and he looked quite fast.

“That, in a way, took the pressure off a little bit because I had to go fast and see what happened. It was my first time trying to go fast with this horse and he got really excited and very into it. We were having fun out there, so it was really a nice feeling. Also, Wilton is fast too, so it was not over until it was over.”

Dinan is completing her final semester at Harvard University and is looking forward to getting back to riding full-time in May. She has been training with Swiss equestrian and Olympic team silver medalist Beat Mändli for the past two years.