For the second time this year, the international equestrian database Hippomundo has chosen Ireland’s show jumping team above the rest.

This week, it predicts that our team of Bertram Allen, Cian O’Connor and Darragh Kenny, along with alternate Shane Sweetnam, will win gold in Tokyo.

Back in April, Hippomundo declared the Irish as top-earners during the first quarter of 2021. Now they see Ireland standing top of the podium on Saturday afternoon.

“Based on the data from the beginning of 2021 until now, Ireland is currently the country with the best chance of winning the team competition at the Games,” the website states.

Rankings

To reach that conclusion, Hippomundo added together their own rankings for both riders and horses to arrive at an overall total for each of the contending teams. The higher the ranking, the fewer the points. The team with the lowest total score, and thus the highest ranking, has performed best so far in 2021.

On the Irish side Bertram Allen was awarded 10 points for his own ranking and seven for that of Pacino Amiro for a total of 17.

Darragh Kenny scored six for his own ranking and 35 for VDL Cartello while Cian O’Connor recorded 49 for himself plus 34 for Kilkenny.

This gave Ireland an overall total of 141 ahead of the US on 159, Germany with 228 and Switzerland on 268.

However, predictions are precarious things. We have to remember that these statistics are based solely on performances since the beginning of the year, where team manager Michael Blake pushed hard to give his top riders as much preparation as possible with outings in Wellington, Rome, St. Gallen La Baule and Rotterdam.

So it is no wonder that they racked up some very good performance points.

Hopeful

All the same, these rankings give hope as we await results from this week’s competitions. First our squad has to place within the top 10 of 19 participating nations in Friday’s qualifier. This allows them into Saturday’s final.

As we await this weekend’s results it is nice to at least be considered by an authoritative voice like that of Hippomundo. Louise Parkes, who is reporting from Tokyo for the International Equestrian Federation this week named the main opposition for Ireland as Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

France, of course are the defending champions and cannot be ruled out. With no dropped score available this time and all three scores to count it is an open competition.

We have sent our best and hope for the best.