JOHN Floody and Accidental Diamond won the first round of the 1.40m SJI National Grand Prix league 2021 at Coilóg Equestrian last Sunday.

Just two days after he rode Donevan Erkindale to the top spot in the final round of the Spring Tour Grand Prix at the same venue, Floody once again dominated, seeing off stiff competition from the 38 combinations that lined out for the Tom Holden-designed track.

Speaking after the victory Floody said: “The double of wins was a bit unexpected to tell you the truth. But I’m delighted, any win is great so I’ll take that.

“Accidental Diamond arrived with me mid-season of his six-year-old year and we moved him up to 1.40m at the end of last year but with Covid disruptions he probably didn’t get to as many shows as we had planned.

“He’s a very scopey horse. He just needed a little time to develop because he’s so big. He’s about 17.3hh so he’s just a very big horse that needed time to get his whole body together and strengthen up, but he feels really good at the minute,” he said of the nine-year-old gelding who is owned by Kathryn Magennis.

“I think he has plenty of jump and a good heart and a good brain. He’s easily trained so I can see no problem with him progressing to 1.50m. He is a little bit long in himself and carries himself his own way but when he gets to the jump he is careful and he tries his best.”

Difficult track

Speaking about his winning round, Floody added: “He has a massive stride and that helped me in the jump-off. The first round was challenging though; some of the distances were short and I had to work hard to contain him, especially in the last line which was very difficult, you had a careful plank to a double which was very wide. A lot of people had the back pole there, and then you had a short five strides to another oxer, I had to really shorten him there but he listened well and we managed to jump a clear round.

“Tom (Holden) built a clever course. Everyone was being careful with the final line; it was a little light blue plank sitting on top of the wings on flat cups. Everyone was being cautious there and the four strides ended up being a little long, so what was happening was they were leaving themselves a little bit too much off the oxer and so many horses landed on the back pole.

“I was fourth to go in the jump-off. Jenny (Rankin) was in the lead up to that and I managed a clear round and was just marginally faster so I was delighted with that. I would have been happy to finish just within the top-three so to take the win was great.

“The plan now, all going well with Covid-19, is to keep going with the 1.40m and then to bring him up to 1.50m when the Premier Grand Prix league starts.”

Eventing background

Accidental Diamond is by Diamond Roller out of Cottage Donna (High Roller) and was bred by John Kearney. His owner Kathryn Magennis said: “I’m so pleased for him. I’ve never seen a horse that loves his job as much.

“He loves to jump and has so much scope. I bought him from Ciaran King when he was just three years old. He was so big I decided to send him eventing with Colin Halliday so he could learn how to balance himself and start to develop.

“We never put him under pressure, we have always just allowed him to guide us. He is so happy in his job. He did well in the young event horses classes, but when he was six it became obvious that jumping was his thing and I sent him to John (Floody) and he hasn’t looked back since.

“I’ve just had a baby and with Covid I’ve been very restricted and haven’t been able to see him as much as I’d like but hopefully that will all change soon. I’m really looking forward to watching him progress, he deserves so much success.”

Just five riders managed to keep a clean sheet over both rounds of the competition.

Pathfinder in the timed decider was Sarah Connell, riding Clare Connell’s eight-year-old mare Coolmeen Fair Exchange (Lancelot - Olympic Lux). They posted a second clear round in 44.95 which would be good enough for eventual third place.

Second in was Jenny Rankin riding the Vanessa Mannix-owned 10-year-old German-bred mare Carmela Z. They too left all the fences up and cruised into the lead in 42.58 which would promote them, temporarily, to the top of the table, before eventually finishing second.

Next to go, Edward Doyle and Lisa Cawley’s Flexibility (Flexible - Diamond Lad) had one fence on the ground 40.45 to finish in fourth place.

Floody was next to go and lodged a foot-perfect round aboard Accidental Diamond in 42.47 to secure the win. Rankin was last to go with her second mount, Barry O’Connor’s 10-year-old Swedish-bred gelding Cosimo il Primo. They ran into trouble at the first fence and failed to recover, finishing on 22 faults in fifth place.

The next and second round of the National Grand Prix league takes place tomorrow (Sunday) at the Meadows Equestrian Centre.