WORLD number one rider, Tim Price, not only led the New Zealand team to Nations Cup victory but also claimed the individual honours in the showpiece with Falco when, with the second fastest cross-country round, he added 5.2 time penalties to his second-placed dressage score of 24.6. Falco, a 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding, owned by the rider and Sue Benson, was having his first international start since carrying Price to individual and team bronze in the world championships at Pratoni last September.

Nearly as quick on the final leg, Britain’s Kirsty Chabert finished second on the similarly-aged Classic VI (36.5). This Anglo European Studbook-registered mare by Calvaro Z seems to like the Millstreet air as she also filled the runner-up position in the CCI4*-S here last August having landed a similar contest at the Co Cork venue just two months earlier.

Murphy shines with Calmaro

Co Down-based Joseph Murphy was well-pleased with his third-place finish on Calmaro whose completion score of 39.7 included four show jumping penalties and 5.6 for time over the Mike Etherington-Smith-designed cross-country course.

“It was great for Calmaro and the fact that all his owners were there made the result even better,” said Murphy who is a part-owner himself along with Richard Ames, Claire and Charlie Mayne and Annette O’Callaghan. The last-named had a good day on Sunday as, not too far away in Listowel, her home-bred three-year-old Sweetest Rose won a mares and fillies’ maiden for trainer Ger Lyons and jockey Gary Carroll.

Commenting further on the Brandenburg gelding, a 12-year-old grey by Carpalano, Murphy stated: “Everything was straightforward for him. I was very pleased with his dressage score and, while he had a pole in the show jumping, I put that down to him being a bit fresh and spooky.

“I recorded a good time across the country but I thought the ground on Sunday was rattling fast and, while they spiked it for Friday and Saturday, I thought they could have kept working on it as it was drying out all the time. Saying that, Millstreet is a world class facility which is getting better all the time and that is why so many of the world’s top riders were there this year.”

Twelve combinations failed to complete most notably those who were lying first, third and fourth after the dressage phase judged by Britain’s Anne-Marie Taylor (C) and Jane Holderness-Roddam (H) plus Ireland’s Vanda Stewart (B). These were Australia’s Kevin McNab with the 16-year-old ISH gelding Willunga (23.6) and the 11-year-old AES-registered mare Miss Pepperpot (26.4) and Joseph Murphy with the 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding Choclat (26.6).