SHOW JUMPING

Emer Bermingham

The penultimate weekend of jumping in the Connolly’s Red Mills Spring tour at Mullingar Equestrian Centre (MEC) proved to be a very competitive one, with little separating those combinations in the line-up. Following what was a nail-biting jump-off, it was James Hogg and Always On My Mind that led the victory lap. Mullingar, in the past, has proved to be happy hunting ground for Hogg having won numerous classes at Mullingar International as well as qualifying for the Dublin Horse Show there. Last year, Hogg was narrowly beaten in the Spring Tour by a mere fraction of a second, but this year the shoe was on the other foot. Hogg took the win by less than a second from his closest rival Sven Hadley.

Always On My Mind is a 10-year-old gelding by Ard VDL Douglas out of the Andiamo-sired mare Sandiamo. Under Hogg’s command they have clocked up a series of good results which includes second place last year in the 1.30m qualifier in Cavan International and third in the Northern Indoor Championships 1.30m final.

Sponsored by MEC and the Fagan family, the feature class attracted a strong start-list of 53 combinations. Course designer , Seamus Casey set the challenge and with riders well up to the task, 11 of those proceeded to the timed round.

ANDERSON SET THE BAR

In the jump-off those with a win in mind needed to take a series of tight turn backs. At the start of the course, a tight right hand turn back from the double to a tall vertical was the choice of many. However, to clinch the win another tight right hand turn to the penultimate vertical, matched with a strong gallop to the last oxer was a necessary maneuver.

Pro-Am rider, Vickie Anderson set the bar high when first to go in the jump-off. She partnered Zack to a clear in 46.03 seconds. This pairing has proved to be very consistent in this tour and is currently top of the Pro-Am leaderboard. As well as finishing in eventual ninth in this round, she was crowned the leading Pro-Am rider of the round.

Fourth to go in the jump-off, young rider Thomas Foley didn’t hang about with Ballylynch Wizard and took the lead when he crossed the line in 44.70s. Ballylynch Wizard was the former mount of eventer Michael Ryan and has proved successful in both international eventing and show jumping.

Foley’s good performance later proved good enough for eventual fourth, a place which he shared with Ger Clarke Jnr and Ardragh Stein who also clocked the very same time. Foley also took the leading young rider prize of the round.

Nicholas Butler temporarily took the lead when he took all the necessary tight lines with Vimminka and delivered a clear in 44.02s. His lead was short-lived however as James Hogg and Always On My Mind shaved almost two seconds off the target when they stopped the clock in 42.05s seconds.

Placed second the week before in Barnadown, young rider Patrick Hickey was back in the ribbons this time taking sixth place with Martini Van Overis Z when clear in 44.73s. In seventh place was Gerard O’ Neill riding Niamh Rothwell’s and Julian Pearson’s eight-year-old mare, Galway Bay Astrojet, when clear in 45.41s.

All eyes were on the current league leader Sven Hadley and Sumas Taloubet and they didn’t disappoint as they negotiated a similar track to the leader. Despite this good turn of pace however, a clear in 42.87s failed to take the lead and instead took the runner-up spot and in the process demoted Butler into third.

A second place finish was what Hadley needed to cement his lead on the leaderboard as they head into the final two rounds next weekend at Coilog and Warrington. Not content with the runner-up spot, hadley also took eighth place with Why Not Fado when they clocked 45.88s.