Isabel Hurley

TALENT and dedication were celebrated at the annual The Irish Field/Gain Horse Feeds awards at the K Club on Monday where World Cup show jumping finalist Bertram Allen was honoured with not one but two standing ovations.

The Co Wexford rider, fresh from his latest World Cup triumph in France on Saturday evening, flew in to Ireland especially for ceremony, accompanied by his delighted mother Geraldine.

Managing editor of The Irish Field, Leo Powell, welcomed the 65 guests to the K-Club. Among them were CEO of Horse Sport Ireland, Damian McDonald, HSI Director of Finance Mark Bolger, chairman of Show Jumping Ireland, Tony Hurley and Irish chef d’equipe Robert Splaine.

There were extraordinary scenes in Bordeaux last weekend when the normally reserved French crowd took to their feet for almost 15 minutes of a standing ovation after the 19-year-old Irish rider slashed over a second off the time of German jumping greats Ludger Beerbaum and Marcus Ehning to claim his second World Cup qualifier and shoot to the top of the Western European leaderboard on an impressive tally of 71 points.

Allen is currently ranked number 14 in the Longines world rankings and is now expected to make it into the world’s top 10 - a feat few Irish riders have ever achieved.

Allen enjoyed a super year in 2014 in which he was named on several Nations Cup squads including Ireland’s Aga Khan team at the RDS before winning the €200,000 Longines Grand Prix of Dublin. He followed up that five-star with with another Grand Prix win at Lummen CSI***** and then won the Verona World Cup qualifier in November before winning two major classes Olympia in London and then last weekend, started off 2015 in the best possible way capped it with that scintillating win in the World Cup qualifier at Bordeaux.

Based full-time in Hunxe, The Rhineland, Allen is among the youngest riders ever to qualify for the prestigious World Cup final which will be held in Las Vegas in April.

Allen was presented with The Irish Field Senior Show Jumper of the Year award and was also the recipient, for the second consecutive year, of the 2014 Gain Horse Feeds/The Irish Field Star of the Year Award.

To huge applause, Bertram Allen said: “2014 was a huge year and Molly (Malone V) really stepped up on the big scene and to get on some of the senior Nations Cup teams and the Aga Khan team and win the Grand Prix [Dublin], it was really special. Dublin for an Irish rider, is really special, we are competing abroad most of the time and to get home for the week, see everyone and put in a good performance, it was very special.

“On the day of the Aga Khan, you feel the hype, you know it’s more important, you feel a bit nervous but that brings out the best in you and to go into that ring on the Friday, it’s very special.

“In the World Equestrian Games, we were very unlucky not to qualify. We had three riders in the top 12, more than any other country, we missed it by two penalties. We were a bit disappointed after the Thursday of the Nations Cup, after the individuals, we went better again and it gave us a bit of hope,’’ said Allen, who said Ireland’s senior show jumpers would be going all out to qualify at the Aachen championships but admitted it would be tough.

Asked by MC Brendan McArdle for his reaction to his 15-minute standing ovation in Bordeaux for his World Cup qualifier win, Allen said: “Cool, it was a full house, it’s a special show in Bordeaux. The French are big supporters of show jumping. I was second last to go, it was a spectacular one. special, the crowd were amazing. To put Ludger Beerbaum into second and Marcus Ehning in third, for me that was really special, they are heroes of the sport and had been lying first and second so to take it off them was very special.”

Allen and Alex Duffy are now heading to Spain with young horses during which time Molly Malone V will have a week or two off.

“Molly is the only one I’m taking to Las Vegas,’’ said Allen, added that for 2015, “the big goal is Aachen”.

There was great applause too when Co Down-based Joseph Murphy was named as the Senior Event Rider of the Year.

Murphy, who is one of Ireland’s most popular international riders, finished fifth at Pau, France, one of only six four-star events in the world. He held two top five places, following cross-country and took the trophy for the best cross-country round of the event with Electric Cruise. He went on to take fifth with Sportsfield Othello, giving one of Ireland’s best results in recent years at a four-star fixture. He was also part of Ireland’s WEG squad that qualified for Rio.

Murphy, who also celebrated his birthday on Monday, said: “I love the sport, training and riding the horses. It [the award] came as a big surprise. I’m very humbled to win it. I would like to think the horses are improving and I’m improving as a rider. I came into the sport very late in my career. Up to this I was riding a little bit off the seat of my pants. I would hope there is a lot of improvement to come.”

With Ireland’s senior event riders qualified for Rio, Murphy acknowledged how unfortunate Ireland’s senior show jumpers were to be denied 2016 Olympic qualification by the narrowest of margins. “We are very lucky (the eventers), the show jumpers were so good and were so unlucky not to have qualified. We now can plan for the future and for next year and plan our horses which is so important. It is important for us that the show jumpers qualify this year and we can all go together,’’ added Murphy.

REYNOLDS FLYING THE FLAG

Germany-based Judy Reynolds also flew in especially for Monday’s award ceremony at which she received the coveted Dressage Rider of the Year award. Representating Ireland at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, Reynolds enjoyed multiple top-10 placings at international level with Vancouver K, with whom she was also crowned the 2014 Dressage Ireland national champion.

In December, Judy became the first Irish rider to get through to the freestyle of the World Cup qualifier at Olympia and is qualified for the 2015 European Championships.

Reynolds paid tribute to her father Joe and husband Patrick for all their support saying: “We got to compete at the World Cup shows before Christmas and we have a World Cup show coming up and then we go on to compete at Doha. We are moving up in the rankings which is good when you are working hard and riding 10 to 12 horses a day, if you can get some good results to back it up.”

European junior team gold medallist and individual silver medallist, Cathal Daniels won the Junior Event Rider of the Year award. Widely recognised as one of the hardest working young riders on the circuit, Daniels said: “2014 was a great year, very successful. We have a good few horses in and to try and keep it all going, it’s not easy sometimes but the hard work pays off.” Rioghan Rua will be Daniels’ main horse for 2015.

Susan Fitzpatrick retained her title of Junior Show Jumper of the Year for the second consecutive year after she won an individual bronze medal and team silver at the pony European Championships on Rock Dee Jay. A delighted Fitzpatrick, who intends to make a full-time career with horses, said: “It was a lot of pressure (as defending champion). Millstreet was very special and well done to the Duggan family.”

THE IRISH FIELD AWARDS

Senior show jumper of the year: Bertram Allen

Senior event rider of the year: Joseph Murphy

Senior dressage rider of the year: Judy Reynolds

Junior show jumper of the year: Susan Fitzpatrick

Junior event rider of the year: Cathal Daniels

GAIN HORSE FEEDS/THE IRISH FIELD

STAR OF THE MONTH AWARDS

January: Anthony Condon, winner of Grand Prix Mediterranean Equestrian Tour CSI** (Week II), on Paul Stafford’s Value T.

February: Darragh Kenny, winner of the $34,000 Suncast 1.50m Championship Jumper Classic with Quiz and $50,000 HITS Grand Prix with Alpha VDL.

March: Anne Marie Dunphy, pony dressage team manager behind Ireland’s qualification for the European Championships at Addington.

April: Cora Sharkey (12), winner of the International Pony Grand Prix at Fontainebleau, the only clear round from over 50 starters.

May: Paula Cullen, breeder of Paulank Brockagh, winner of the Badminton Horse Trials.

June: PJ Hegarty, breeder of Fenyas Elegance, Bramham CCI*** winner and part of Ireland’s WEG team.

July: Noelle Barry, jumped double clear for Ireland in junior Nations Cup in European Championships with Norway Venture and also finished individual seventh.

August: Bertram Allen, winner of the €200,000 Grand Prix of Dublin on Molly Malone V and part of Ireland’s WEG squad.

September: Elizabeth Hayden, team gold winner at the Young Rider Eventing European Championships and also won the individual bronze medal on Miracle (ISH).

October: Billy Twomey, winner of two major classes at the Horse of the Year Show in Birmingham with Ardcolum Duke (ISH).

November: Jonathan Gordon, winner of the 30th International Stuttgart Masters with his mare Emma Brown.

December: Ronan McGuigan, hat-trick winner in Florida including the $34,000 1.45m FEI world ranking class with Capall Zidane.