IRELAND’S Kevin Babington and his long-time partner Shorapur won last Friday’s $35,000 1.45m speed competition at the three-star Split Rock Jumping Tour’s Longines FEI World Cup show in Columbus, the second week of the Tour’s run at the Brave Horse Show Park in Johnstown, Ohio in the USA.

Shorapur, a 13-year-old Hanoverian mare owned by Shorapur LLC, is well known for her speed across the ground and over the fences, and she did not disappoint. The bay mare completed Alan Wade’s course clear in a time of 69.15 seconds, well ahead of the other 59 competitors who tried their luck in the class.

Speaking afterwards, the Tipperary rider said: “She is so fast. My plan is to use Shorapur for Sunday, so my plan going in today was to see how she felt at the first three fences.

“If she wasn’t taking over and trying to pull me past the distance I would just stay on that rhythm.

“She was really good to the first three, so I just stuck to my plan and just tried to stay on a good rhythm all the way around.

“If it ended up being the fastest time, great, and if it didn’t, I still would have been happy. It is always really nice to win.”

Babington was one of 10 first round clears in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier but four faults against the clock, where five riders produced a double clear, saw him finish in ninth place.

Mexico’s Eugenio Garza Perez took victory aboard Victer Finn Dh Z with the fastest round against the clock. Garza Perez was part of the history-making Mexican team who won the Aga Khan trophy at the Dublin Horse Show in August. He is trained by Ireland’s Eddie Macken.