CO Louth’s Mark McAuley enjoyed a successful weekend at the five-star Saut Hermes show in Paris, France, finishing twice runner-up before taking a top-10 place in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

His first result came in Friday’s 1.50m Table A aboard Eva Lundin’s brilliant grey gelding Miebello. The combination collected €5,000 when their time of 61.85 seconds was just bettered by French winner Julien Epaillard and Usual Suspect d’Auge (0/ 58.16). Denis Lynch finished in seventh place with Chablis (0/ 66.56).

McAuley and Miebello repeated that performance with another second-place finish in Saturday’s 1.60m class. Their time of 46.09 seconds against the clock was good enough to earn them a lucrative €19,000, behind Frenchman Olivier Perreau. Lynch was just one place behind in third with Gun Power to collect €14,500 (0/ 51.78).

McAuley and Lynch were among the 14 clears in the first round of the €400,000 Hermes Grand Prix on Sunday, where victory went to Frenchman and Hermes ambassador Simon Delestre for the second year in-a-row.

The crowd at the breathtaking Grand Palais were ecstatic when the home rider and his top mount, Hermes Ryan, saw off Germany’s Christian Ahlmann and Dominator Z by two hundredths of a second. Spain’s Eduardo Alvarez Aznar slotted into third place with Seringat, a horse formally ridden by Cian O’Connor.

McAuley guided the 10-year-old gelding Vivaldi du Theil to eighth place after picking up four faults against the clock, while Lynch finished 12th aboard Chablis, also faulting once in the jump-off.

Slattery third

Sofie Slattery placed third in the Under 25 Grand Prix at the Parisian venue to take home €3,750. Riding the talented Valentine du Bois Pinchet, she was one of 10 combinations to make it through to the jump-off, where five combinations were double clear.

Slattery’s time of 39.63 seconds was just faster than teammate Anna Carway and Ajaccio, who finished in fourth place. Victory went to Belgium’s Thibault Philippaerts, ahead of Britain’s Georgia Tame, who rides for Ireland’s Shane Breen, in second.

Slattery and Carway were sixth from 10 teams in Sunday’s Under 25 team competition. Slattery kept a clean sheet, while Carway faulted once in both rounds.

The British combination of Amy Inglis and Tame won the class with zero faults, ahead of Germany on four faults.