In his first time competing at the top venue, O’Shea’s dream run of top notch results continued as he took the victory gallop in front of thousands of spectators in the premiere event.

Olaf Petersen Jnr set the course for 31 entries with nine clear rounds advancing to the jump-off. Four riders qualified two horses each, including top American riders McLain Ward and Laura Chapot.

Flying the tricolour alongside O’Shea was Kilkenny’s Kevin Babington and just five entries jumped clear into the second round.

Babington eventually had to settle for sixth and ninth places with Shorapur and Mark Q respectively.

However, O’Shea set the pace with the first double clear round aboard Gotham Enterprizes’ River Dance Semilly in 43.63 seconds, which eventually finished fifth.

Last year’s winners, Ward and Sagamore Farms’ Rothchild, upped the ante in the next round, stopping the clock in a blazing 40.79 to place third.Laura Chapot and Quointreau Un Prince, who she owns in partnership with Ward, put in the fourth place round in a time of 41.95.

O’Shea went next with his second mount, Primo de Revel, and raced to the winning time of 38.95. The final clear jump-off round belonged to Todd Minikus and the Quality Group’s Quality Girl, who jumped into second place in 39.63 despite breaking a rein on the third to last jump.

WINNING PARTNERSHIP

Primo de Revel, owned by Michael Hayden, is a 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (by Quinault x Lys de Darmen). O’Shea has had the horse for seven years and enjoys a great partnership with him, including 11 Grand Prix victories.

“What can I say? I loved it,” O’Shea said of his first Devon experience. “The atmosphere is obviously very special here. The crowd really gets into it, and it is just an incredible atmosphere and feeling here. I originally came to America through Harry Gill and Sherry Robertson, so I actually lived 20 minutes from here when I first came to America. I wasn’t at the show, but I know the area, so it is nice to be back here again.”

Commenting on the trust that he had in Primo de Revel to really go for the win in the jump-off, O’Shea detailed: “We know each other very well, and he is an extremely competitive horse. He is very rideable. He has a very good canter, so you can go quite fast on him and he doesn’t get long and flat. He is experienced against the clock. I watched McLain go, and I thought I just had to go as fast as I could. Everything worked out tonight.

“He has been great since the start,” the rider further described. “He has a fantastic mind; that is his best trait I think. From one show to the next I never jump him because he is so easy, which is very unusual. He is just so balanced, and he just knows what to do. Obviously I don’t want to do too much with him, so I keep him fit on the flat and maybe jump once or twice for the first show of the year, but after that he just competes. I think that atmosphere here tonight helped him a little bit too. Some horses might get worse, but it actually raised him up,’’ said the Loughshinny native.

Last year’s winner McLain Ward did his best to defend his title with Rothchild this year, but ended up third. “He’s been here a few years. He won here last year when it was a little bit of a slower jump-off,” Ward noted of Rothchild. “Where I went in the order, it was the right round. It was just an amazing jump-off. Todd is one of the fastest riders in the world and Paul kicked his butt. I don’t think it was going to be very easy to beat him tonight. I don’t think there was much room.”

Thursday’s Grand Prix kicked off the 2014 Taylor Harris Insurance Services Triple Crown Challenge. As the night’s winner, O’Shea will have the opportunity to claim a $200,000 rider bonus if he and Primo de Revel can go on to win at the Hampton Classic Grand Prix and then again at the National Horse Show Grand Prix in Kentucky.

O’Shea accepted a special award as the winner of the first leg of the challenge. For his grand prix victory, O’Shea was awarded with The Celeste McNeal Harper Perpetual Trophy. He was also presented with the Richard E. McDevitt Style Award, earning The Richard E. McDevitt Style Trophy donated by Mr. Wade L. McDevitt.