IRISH riders dominated the feature class on week one of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, as Derry’s Daniel Coyle landed the $75,000 Rosenbaum Mollengarden PLLC Grand Prix last Sunday.

The 22-year-old show jumper, who arrived in Florida exactly a year ago to ride the young horses at Lothlorien Farm, has had a meteoric rise through the ranks and most recently took over as number one stable rider for the Canadian-based outfit following Conor Swail’s decision to move out on his own. Ironically, it was Swail who stood next to Coyle on the podium, claiming second place aboard Flower.

Coyle and the 11-year-old Holsteiner mare (Casall x Pik Ramiro) crossed the timers in 37.05 seconds, just ahead of Swail and Flower's time of 37.16 seconds. America's Catherine Tyree jumped into third place with Mary and Joe Tyree's Bokai in 37.49 seconds.

"This is my first show with that horse and last week was my first week riding her," Coyle detailed. "Conor did very well with her, so we knew she was a good horse. It takes me awhile to get used to them, and when I do, I feel very comfortable. I kind of knew her already from working alongside Conor, so I'm very happy. It is only my second week on her, and I really like her."

Speaking about the change at Lothlorien and his abundance of new mounts for the winter, Coyle stated, "Fortunately for me, Conor left. I have all of these new horses, good horses. I had very good horses before; a lot of younger ones there, but to get his horses as well as the ones that I had, I was very fortunate. It is just going to take me a little while to figure them out for myself, but today went well."

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For Swail, Nina Fagerstrom's (FIN) former mount Flower is a brand new ride this winter as well, and the rider is just getting to know the 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare (Bon Ami x Randel Z).

Despite getting edged out by his former protégé, Swail was happy with his start to the winter circuit and happy to see one of his favorite horses excel under her new rider.

"It's great to see him going well, and that was one of my favorite mares there, so it is great to see her going well. I would prefer he was behind me to be honest with you, but it's still good. My new mare jumped very well today, and I was very pleased with my own situation going forward."

Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam and Cian O’Connor also made it through to the 15-horse jump-off. Sweetnam picked up four faults aboard Cobolt (Cyklon x Camaro M) for 10th place, while O’Connor guided the Selle Francais gelding Seringat (Chef Rouge x Guillaume Tell) to 12th (0/7/ 48.51).