THE Irish squad took seventh place in last weekend’s Nations Cup at the three-star show in Lisbon, Portugal, where victory went to a dominant Spanish team. Two of the Irish team - Jack Dodd and Jack Donoghue - were having their very first CSIO call up.

Irish chef d’equipe Robert Splaine said: “Six riders made the long journey to Portugal for the 96th Horse Show at Hipódromo Do Campo Grande in the centre of the city of Lisbon. Capt Geoff Curran, Jack Dodd, Jack Donoghue, Michael G Duffy, Marion Hughes and Thomas Ryan made up the squad. The experience of competing in one of the finest grass arenas in the world with the second round of the Nations Cup run under lights, should not be underestimated and even though we didn’t achieve a noteworthy result on this occasion, two riders on the squad were having their first CSIO call up. The highlight for us was a clear round by Capt Geoff Curran on the Minister Of Defence’s Ringwood Glen (ISH).

TOUGH CONTEST

“This Nations Cup was an extremely tough contest with Spain who are serious contenders for promotion to the top league and who fielded a top team achieving the win. A special mention of thanks must go to the owners and supporters who made the long journey here to support the Irish team,” added Splaine.

Meanwhile, Jack Dodd and Thomas Ryan also achieved a number of strong top 10 places in classes at the show.

Dodd was equal second with Wrangler II in the 1.50m Grand Prix qualifier last Saturday, sharing the place double clear in 40.88 seconds with Belgian Nadege Jansseen. Ryan placed Pappa Ante Portas eighth in the class (0/11 54.17). Ryan was fifth with Lorenzo in a 1.45m class in which Dodd placed Izzy By Picobello into 10th. More was to come when Dodd was fifth with Izzy By Picobello (0/0 43.88) behind local winner Joao Chuva on Virginia Dream (0/0 37.08).

Ryan placed twice in seventh on Quantano CH including a 1.40m two phase (0/0 28.55) and 10th in the same class with Sandrilo (0/0 29.70) behind Italian winners Linda Bratomi on Chanel (0/0 26.90).