DERRY’S Jordan Coyle is enjoying a fabulous run of form in the USA and last weekend landed the $200,000 Purina Animal Nutrition Grand Prix at HITS Saugerties in New York, completing a remarkable hat-trick in as many weeks.

Coyle scooped $66,000 last Sunday when racing to victory in the feature class aboard Elan Farm’s Picador, a 13-year-old by Lupicor II. He beat USA’s Lucy Deslauriers into second place with Hester, ahead of her father, Mario Deslauriers, and Amsterdam.

Former world number one McLain Ward (USA) slotted into fourth place aboard his five-star Grand Prix-winning mount Noche de Ronda, while Coyle added another $12,000 to his prize tally when finishing in fifth place with Warnike, a new mount, also owned by Elan Farm.

Coyle, who is based at Old Salem Farm in New York for the summer, works for Elan Farm and Celtic Park. Speaking to The Irish Field,, he said his good run of form is as a result of good horses from loyal owners. “I am very lucky to have more horses now,” he said. “I have a lot of horses that are at the higher level and I can pick and choose what classes to go in. I won the Grand Prix for the last three weeks in-a-row with three different horses.

“I feel very lucky. It has only been a year and a half, give or take, that the whole thing gone onto a bigger platform. I only had a few horses but I have 20 horses now and I have good help. Everything looks good at the moment.”

Asked if he found the lockdown period beneficial, Coyle said: “I enjoyed it for sure. At that time, I had just gotten a few new horses. It gave me time to play about with them. Warinke was fifth in the Grand Prix last week and Ariso won the Grand Prix the first week.”

About last week’s winning mount, Picador, he said: “Picador is an exceptionally good horse. He’s the only horse or pony that I have ever ridden that you never have to give an easy day – every day you can go to win.

“We were very unfortunate with him but also very lucky. I got him just before Spruce Meadows last year and went there won practically every class. Then we brought him home for the Dublin Horse Show and he took colic on the way home from Dublin; me and him both had colic surgery at the same time actually.

“He was in Florida this year and he just wasn’t the same horse but I feel very very very lucky now that he is back to where he is. He has had one jump down in 11 rounds at 1.50m.”

Accident

Coyle never made it to the main arena in Dublin when he fell off a horse at home the Sunday before the show and was badly injured. Almost a year to the day later, he is only starting to feel himself again.

“I had a big accident when I came home. It happened the Sunday before. It was a very simple fall. The horse jumped the fence and six or seven strides after, he stumbled in the sand and fell down. I fell beside him and unfortunately, when he was getting up, he put his foot in my stomach. I didn’t think it was that bad, I thought I was just winded, but it turned out to be a lot more than that.”

Coyle should have been sidelined for a long time, but, “I was a little bit ignorant and came back probably too soon. Others would have taken longer and I should have taken longer.

“I never had a horse that had colic surgery [before Picador] and knowing from my own self…I am only starting to feel somewhat normal now, a year later, so I can only imagine what it felt like for him too.

“I was going to Dublin with Picador, who had just won everything in Spruce, and I had rested the grey horse [Eristov] and saved him in my head for Dublin. I was really looking forward to it and it would have suited them. And then it was the same this year, I was all fired up and ready to go again. We will just stay around New York now. We are very lucky to have Saugerties that has so much money on offer, like €200,000 in a national Grand Prix, and it is only one hour down the road.”

Coyle has plenty of young horses at home and hopes at least a few will turn out to be for the top of the sport, especially a two-year-old full-brother to the 2012 Olympic champion Nino des Buissonnets (Steve Guerdat). “I have 14 that I own myself back at home, where my mother and father look after everything. They are all younger ones that we are hoping to get some sort of future from.”