SHANE Breen shared the top spot in last Friday’s Grandstand Media Five Fence Challenge with Britain’s Holly Smith and Helen Tredwell at the 2017 Horse of the Year Show at Birmingham’s Genting Arena.

The thrilling class featured a course of five fences which began at a height of 1.40m and continued through to four rounds when the fences stood at a massive 1.80m. Similar to a Puissance competition, the competition could only go to five rounds, with the fences getting bigger each time, and a fence down or a refusal signalled the immediate ringing of the bell and riders could not continue.

Breen rode Team Z7’s 11-year-old stallion Can Ya Makan to jump four spectacular rounds before all three riders decided to split the prize without going to a third round. Buckinghamshire-based Tredwell rode Sebastian VII and Smith was aboard Hearts Destiny. They each collected £3,000.

“It was a great class,” Breen said. “I think we did the right thing to divide the prize, it was a sensible one. We’ve got two more days of jumping, so we wanted to leave something in the tank. I am delighted with my horse.

“To be honest he hasn’t had a show since Dublin because he went to stud, so plenty of semen for him next year, so he’s not at peak fitness at the minute so I am very impressed with how he dealt with this competition, with such big jumps.”

Breen travels to the UAE in the New Year. “The plan ahead is I will do two more shows with him and then in the middle to end of December he heads to Dubai and then we do our first show on January 4th – we do the big five-star Grand Prix,” he added.

Like Anthony Condon earlier in the day, Breen also spoke about the influence of new chef d’equipe Rodrigo Pessoa, saying: “Rodrigo is a great chef in a number of ways, but one in particular - he is a very cool character yet he is unbelievably focused. He has a plan and he likes to get it executed.

“He doesn’t listen to excuses, you have a plan going in the ring, execute it and you’re clear. He has won everything in the world so he commands a lot of respect and I think that’s a key part to our team at the moment, that all the riders really respect him and going forward it’s a bright future for Ireland.”

Speaking about the class, Tredwell added: “I have been a joint-winner and finished equal third in this competition, so it is a favourite class of ours.”

Breen had a third place finish in Sunday’s Zinc Management Speed Horse of the Year 1.45m Table A with Caroline Byrne’s traditional Irish Sport Horse stallion Hallowberry Cruz.

The stallion jumped a clear round in 61.75 seconds to collect £2,100.

The class was won by Holly Smith and the versatile Irish Sport Horse Quality Old Joker (by OBOS Quality 004) in a time of 61.24. Belgium Francois Mathy Jr was second with Casanova de L’Herse (0/0 61.32).