BRENDAN Murphy landed a special personal win in the Horse Sport Ireland 1.40m Grand Prix at Tipperary Equestrian last Sunday.

He guided Gabriel Mullins’s eight-year-old stallion Zambia to the horse’s first victory at this level. Bred by Alan Robertson, Zambia is by Diamant de Semilly out of the Alba mare Sambia.

Murphy recently set up his own business, Brendan Murphy Sport Horses, at his home yard in Johnstown, Arklow, Co Wicklow, and this marked the first Grand Prix victory out on his own.

“My father Paddy and my sister Linda are also based here with 20 horses between us. We produce them from the start all the way through to the bigger classes so it was great to get our first Grand Prix win,” Murphy told The Irish Field.

“I have only had him (Zambia) for about a month now, Gemma Phelan had him as a seven-year-old. He is a stallion but he has a great temperament; he’s actually lovely to work with and is not at all difficult to ride.

“He has only just stepped up to this level so any mistakes he makes are only because he is green. He has plenty of ability and has a big stride so it’s easy for him to cover the ground and have a good time.

“The first 1.40m he jumped was in Cavan at the November show and he did two classes and just had one unlucky pole down. Tipperary was only his third 1.40m so he is really learning quickly. He seems like a very good horse and I think he will be a real contender for the Premier Series next year.”

Talking about his jump-off round, Murphy added: “He was able to leave out one stride coming into the double and again to the final fence without much effort and I think that’s where we won.

“He showed a lot of heart, he really tried so we are delighted with him. I plan to follow the autumn league for the rest of the year and will concentrate on the final in Cavan.”

Murphy also finished third in the class with City. “My other horse, City, was early to go and was clear and good enough to go into the lead, but then Eddie (Moloney) was just that bit quicker which knocked us back a place. We ended up in third but I was happy with how he went.

“He will do the rest of the league as well. It’s great to have these classes to finish out the year. Before this, when the National Grand Prix league was over there was nothing much left for the older horses so this has really fixed that.

“I felt that my two horses were a little bit behind the other horses that had been competing all year, they were still a little green so it’s great to get that mileage on them. I would love to go out to Belgium in the spring so it’s great for them to build up experience in advance of that.”

Jump-off

Just 25 combinations lined out for the competition which offered a generous prize fund of €5,000, including €1,500 for the winning breeder.

Of these, six managed to produce a first-round clear over the John Doyle-designed track.

Murphy and Zambia were fastest of these in 37.33 to take the top spot and breeder’s prize for Alan Robertson.

Eddie Moloney held the lead momentarily but eventually had to settle for the runner-up spot with his own and TSI Equestrian’s Temple Alice (Foxglen Cruise Control x Rantis Diamond) in 37.82.

Having set the standard early in the class, Murphy also picked up third place with Helen O’Regan and John Hoyne’s City (Cicero Z x Contefine) in 43.39, while Edward Doyle was the last of the double clears with Lisa Cawley’s home-bred Chacco Bay (Chacco Blue x Cruising) in 51.21 to take fourth place.

Back from a stint competing in mainland Europe, Jenny Rankin also qualified for the jump-off with two mounts but was out of luck with finish fifth and sixth with Elizabeth Phillips’ seven-year-old mare Justinov and Conor Swail’s Danish-bred gelding Lajgardens Cannavaro.