SHOW JUMPING

Michael Slavin

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What looked like a strong Irish side just did not work out,” was the rather charitable comment on Eurosport about Ireland’s disappointing eighth and last placing in the opening leg of the Division 1 Furusiyya Nations Cup league at Lummen, Belgium last weekend.

The only bright spot in an otherwise dismal performance came from reigning Irish champion, Tipperary man Greg Broderick, who jumped a four and a clear on the Irish-bred gelding MHS Going Global. This nine-year-old by Quidam Junior out of a Cavalier Royale dam was bred by Ita Brennan in Kilkenny and proves the point that with careful selection, we can produce the right kind of jumpers.

Grim Result

Beyond Going Global and Broderick, the news out of Belgium was rather grim. Between them, Denis Lynch (Abbervail van het Dingeshof), Cameron Hanley (Living the Dream) and Billy Twomey (Diaghilev) accumulated a total of 50 faults that sunk Ireland to the bottom of the leader board in eighth place. Thus, one of our four qualifying slots has now been used for a points gain of just 45 towards the required total of well over 200 if we are to avoid relegation to the league’s second division for 2016. Our remaining chances of making up the deficit come at La Baule next week, St Gallen in the first week of June and on home ground at Dublin in August.

No Easy Task

Team manager Robert Splaine admitted that it was no easy task to put a team together for this opening round: “My options were limited at this point.”

Hopefully he will have both Darragh Kenny and world top 10 Bertram Allen available for La Baule. They were in action at the Global Champions Tour in Madrid last weekend. All of this demonstrates the difficulties presented for owners, riders, show organisers and team managers by an international schedule that is ever more crowded.

Winning at Lummen was a resurgent Italian team ahead of Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.