CORK’s Shane Sweetnam, a member of the gold medal Irish team at the European Championships two weeks ago, led a six-horse jump-off to land a big victory in the $50,000 Longines Cup at the four-star Hampton Classic Horse Show with Main Road.

Owned by Sweet Oak Farm and Seabrook LLC, the nine-year-old gelding Main Road (Heartbeat x Irco Marco) was the fastest over Alan Wade’s shortened track, standing at the full 1.60m height, to collect $16,500.

First to go in the jump-off, USA’s Andrew Ramsay set a very quick clear time of 35.32 seconds with California 62, which proved difficult to beat while keeping the jumps up. Young Catherine Tyree was not able to catch Ramsay’s time, but was followed by Sweetnam who then put down his incredible round in 34.04 seconds.

Last to go, Olympic veteran and reigning Longines FEI World Cup Champion McLain Ward gave it his best shot, but ultimately came up just shy of the time with Cartouche in 34.76.

Irish course designer Alan Wade’s designed courses with flowing, bending lines and although the jump-off in the Longines Cup appeared full of tight turns, it was trademark Wade once you saw it was one long serpentine from start to finish.

COURSE DESIGN

“I like simple fluid lines,” stated Wade when asked if his course design could be identified by any particular features. “Then I can put the difficulties with the distances and the dimensions, but the line should always flow.

“I don’t try to hide anything, I don’t try to get tricky. I will play with the dimensions and the standard of the class, but I try to have as few questions as I possibly can in any one course. I don’t like certain fences to cause trouble, I really like to spread difficulties out over the entire course. Some days it doesn’t work like that, but I try in every single course to make it so that each fence has its own little difficulty to define the overall result of the entire show.”

Sweetnam praised his fellow Irishman for his consistency, appropriateness and fairness in the courses for such a major competition.

“When you walked the course, you immediately thought there wouldn’t be many clear. The combinations were tough, the middle line was tough and the time was just tight enough to make you move. But it’s the standard it should be, especially for the Hampton Classic,” Sweetnam said.

The defining moment for Sweetnam and Main Road came with their turns in the jump-off, from the first to second fences, and again from the reworked combination to the Jaguar vertical.

“I knew I was quick in those two spots. I had to really trust him, and let him do what he is good at.”

Both Richie Moloney (Ypaja Yando) and Stephen Moore (Gasper van den Doorn) finished with just one time fault to kept them out of the jump-off and finish in seventh and eighth places respectively.

Sweetnam picked up his first win of the week in Wednesday’s 1.45m with the Blue Buckle Group’s Indra van de Oude Heihoef (Casantos x Action-Breaker). Paul O’Shea slotted into sixth with the former Francis Connors-ridden Irish Sport Horse Primo Troy (Clinton x VDL Arkansas) who was bred by Irish show jumper and producer Linda Courtney.

O’Shea won Friday’s young horse class aboard Skara Glen Stables & Hampton Farms Llc seven-year-old stallion Skara Glen’s 7 Pillars (Spartacus TN x Quantum), formerly named Castlefield Wizard when owned and ridden by Ger O’Neill.

Israel’s Daniel Bluman was the big winner of the $300,000 Hampton Classic Grand Prix with Ladriano Z. Sweetnam was best of the Irish in sixth with Indra van de Oude Heihoef, three places ahead of Richie Moloney and Carrabis Z in ninth.

Moloney proved that consistent results yield big things, as he earned the Longines Rider Challenge, as the show leading rider. Moloney received a lovely Longines timepiece and a check for $30,000. In the five years this award has existed at the Classic, Moloney has won it four times. Countryman Shane Sweetnam won it in 2015, meaning that it has been awarded only to Irish riders.