IT only took three weeks for Ireland to win the ‘Saturday Night Lights’ Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, USA. It was Galway’s Andrew Bourns who duly delivered in the four-star $216,000 NetJets Grand Prix last weekend aboard the Irish Sport Horse gelding Sea Topblue (Chacco Blue x Lux Z), just pipping his compatriot Mark McAuley into second place.

“This is probably his biggest win to date and one of mine too, so I’m pretty happy about that,” said a delighted Andrew Bourns after the victory in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Wellington venue, which is experiencing unusually cold weather with temperature dipping as low at zero degrees last week.

“To be honest when I initially walked the course, I didn’t think there would be as many clear rounds,” Bourns added. “I thought the course was big enough and reasonably technical and, in the end, it just shows the strength of the field and the amount of good horses and riders at WEF this time of year. I think we were all a bit surprised to have so many clear rounds.”

Canada’s Peter Grant built the 1.55m track for 44 entries and of those, 14 produced a clear first round to make it through to the jump-off.

Against the clock, Belgium’s Nicola Philippaerts was the early pacesetter with his own Moya VD Bisschop. The pair were the second to go in the jump-off and set the time to beat at 39.25 seconds.

Nine horses after Philippaerts, WEF first-timer Mark McAuley and Jasco VD Bisschop, a 13-year-old Belgian Sport Horse gelding by Dulf van den Bisschop x Krunch de Breve, stormed into the lead with a brilliant clear in 38.94 seconds to set the new standard.

Ultimately, the Louth rider would have to settle for second place when, as last to go, Bourns was able to take two hundredths of a second off his time with the 11-year-old gelding who was bred by James and John Meade. Bought as a foal in Cavan by Andrew’s late mother Deirdre, he was produced in his early days by former Bourns Sport Horses rider Jenny Rankin, before Bourns took over in 2019. He earned just over $71,000 in victory.

Progress

It has been a steady progression for the talented horse. Bourns explained: “The height of the jumps were never an issue for him, or scope, or ability, or even speed has never been a problem. It was really the rideability, and if the track got technical, that was almost the first thing to catch him out.

“I’ve worked very hard on him, and we’ve worked with a lot of different bits, but I have the rideability better now. I don’t have to ride him so defensively anymore. I can move forward a little bit and actually ride the course the way it should be ridden instead of trying to protect him or trying to avoid a fight with him. Now he’s much easier to ride and much more agreeable, and it makes him a much more effective horse.”

On his plan in the jump-off, he said: “I had a plan made for the jump-off and went in a little bit the mindset that I have a lot I still want to do with this horse this year so if it was fast enough, great, but I had a plan and was going to stick to it.”

First timer

Mark McAuley has travelled to WEF for the first time and, speaking afterwards, said jumping under the lights was a new experience for his 2021 European Championship mount Jasco vd Bisschop who landed a prize fund of $43,300 on Saturday night. “I didn’t really know what to expect,” he noted. “My horse was a bit tense and spooky when he went into the ring, a little bit overwhelmed, but he manned up quite well. I was quite proud of him actually.

“He’s been my best horse for the last few years, and obviously I’ll be aiming him now for the five star here in a fortnight’s time,” McAuley added.

Third-placed Nicola Philippaerts has travelled to WEF due to the ongoing cancellations in mainland Europe where a number of the FEI World Cup qualifiers have been victim to Covid-19 enforced cancellations. “I think we are very fortunate at the moment to be able to ride every week here because everything in Europe is getting cancelled,” he said. “As a rider it’s fantastic here. There’s so much crowd and atmosphere that it motivates you extra. I’m very happy to be here for the season.”

Slotting into fourth place was another Irish Sport Horse, the Pat Kehoe-bred ABC Quantum Cruise (OBOS Quality x Cruising), ridden by Hector Florentino of the Dominican Republic. There were 10 double clears in the class.

Celtic Hero BZ wins two-star

ANOTHER Irish-bred shining at the venue last weekend was the Andrea Etter-bred Celtic Hero BZ (Calikot Hero x Caretano Z) who was victorious in the $50,000 two-star Grand Prix under USA’s Heather Caristo-Williams.

The pair was the only clear in the seven-horse jump-off to win. The 10-year-old stallion was produced in Ireland by Damien Griffin before being sold. “He was originally showing in Ireland as a young horse, and my husband happened to see him,” explained Caristo-Williams. “We didn’t think he was going to be for sale because he was doing so well, but it happened that I knew the owner and breeder, Andrea Etter, from working with her in Switzerland when I was younger.

“She did allow us to come ride him and then buy him, and it was nice because it was like keeping the horse in the family for us both because of our relationship.”

Sligo’s Darragh Kerins slotted into the second place position with Eve Jobs’s 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Intuitive (Beach Ball x Sandiamo) after beating Caristo-Williams’ time by over a second but faulting a single fence in the process. He was bred by Edgar Hogg and produced by James Hogg until 2020. Gavin Harley finished fourth with Clear Ride LLC’s Javalli di Magico.