By Róisín Sheridan

LONGINES GRAND PRIX

OF IRELAND

IRISH riders dominated this year’s Dublin Horse Show but the most lucrative prize went to the USA when Kent Farrington and Uceko won the €200,000 Longines International Grand Prix of Ireland last Sunday.

Runner-up to Bertram Allen last year Farrington ensured he didn’t end up in that position in 2015 with two superb rounds of jumping over Alan Wade’s challenging track.

“I rode just like I did last year; only this time I was a little faster,” was the simple explanation of his winning method by the young American.

“I’ve had my horse since he was seven years old. He is really talented; we’ve won a Pan Am team gold medal, classes in Calgary and Florida and many more; he seems to just get better with age.

“I try to manage his schedule so that he shows at only the places he likes. He loves grass rings and big jumps so I try to pick Grand Prix that suit that.

“He is a really special horse and I’m very lucky to have him in my stable. A special thanks to his owners RCG farm and all of my supporters; I’ve a great team of people behind me in my career and that’s why we are here today.”

Course builder Alan Wade’s course certainly set the 40 riders that started in the class a difficult test.

One line in particular; fence two a triple bar, followed by a tall vertical planks on flat cups five or six strides later and then a wide water caused many problems with 11 combinations collecting faults here.

Runner-up to Farrington Ireland’s Kevin Babbington explained how he made it through the tricky line; “the triple bar is always a funny jump, because you are hoping they’ll get up high in the air and then land shallow, sometimes you can land more into the line than you’d like; I knew when I landed that I was in a good position for the planks”

The other line which caused the most upset was fence six, a tall vertical off a right-hand turn to fence seven a wide oxer facing into the crowd.

The combination at fence nine also took its toll. Coming off yet another tall vertical it was an oxer, oxer, vertical towards the ingate.

It caused 10 riders problems, including Captain Michael Kelly and the Army Equitation School’s Ringwood Glen who produced a superb round but had the middle part down, Nations Cup hero Cian O’Connor who faulted at the final part with Coco II and World number one Scott Brash (Hello M’Lady) who hit the first part.

In total eight riders were clear, 12 had just one fence down, eight retired with the remaining notching up eight faults of more. Despite this there was nothing but praise from the riders for Wade’s clever course building; “Alan is one of the best course designers in modern show jumping. Today was no exception and I thought the course for Friday’s Nations Cup was also excellent,” commented Farrington.

Co Down rider Conor Swail was the first to master Wade’s track aboard Vanessa Mannix’s Belgian stallion Grand Cru V. Vijf Eiken. As first to go in the timed round, Swail set the pace with another clear in a time of 46.35 which would be good enough for eventual third place.

“My main aim coming here was the Nations Cup but for whatever reason Robert (Splaine) decided to leave me off the team so it is somewhat of a consolation to do well in the Grand Prix; Friday would have been nice but to do well on Sunday isn’t too bad,” said Swail.

American rider Lucy Davis was next in riding Barron. They were unlucky to have one fence down in a good time of 45.52 which would leave then in sixth place.

IMPRESSIVE

Ireland’s Kevin Babington and the German-bred mare Shorapur were third to have a go. They produced an impressive round slicing 0.83 off Swail’s time to snatch the lead in 45.75.

“I’ve had her since she was seven, actually I had her sold a few years ago but the people were a bit slow in paying for her so a group of my supporters got together and said let’s keep her for you. So we’ve been going well ever since.

“We had some good Grands Prix results in the States this year, then we came to Europe and had a good show in Belgium, Mannheim didn’t go so well for us but today she’s really back in form.

“The course today didn’t really suit me, she (Shorapur) was very brave but it was so fast that I lost my power steering a bit so that was tricky but I’m delighted with the result,” said Babbington.Italian rider Lorenzo De Luca and Geisha Van Orshof then produced the third clear round as the fourth rider in. They stopped the clock in a time of 46.61 for fourth place in the final line up. Next to go was Farrington. Flat out from the off every turn was timed to perfection. Up on time turning to the final line, the American broke the beam in 43.14 to head the field.

Farrington experienced all manner of emotions during the Dublin show. He didn’t make the cut with Blue Angel for the Nations Cup on Friday after she was eliminated in a class early in the week but he remained optimistic.

“That’s show jumping. You can go from hero to zero in a second, maintaining your composure and staying focused that’s what the job is all about,” he said.

“I compete in North America a lot so I come up against Kent often. It’s no surprise that he comes here and wins; he’s a winning machine; he doesn’t know how to lose. It’s very difficult to beat him in a class when he gets it right,” added Swail.

Last year’s champion Bertram Allen was sixth to take on the challenge. He and Romanov began well but it all fell apart after the double heading to the in gate. An attempt at a right hand turn into the Irish Stags oxer failed to come off with Romanov having an uncharacteristic stop which left them out of the running.

The remaining riders Brazil’s Marlon Modolo Zanotelli (Rock’N Roll Semilly) and Spain’s Sergio Moya Alvarez (Carlo 273) both picked up faults; the former at the final fence and the latter at the double and the Irish stags.