News

Michael Slavin

Co Offaly’s Darragh Kenny topped a superb Irish performance at the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup final in Barcelona by powering home as the winner of Sunday’s five-star Longines Grand Prix.

Following on from a tough Nations Cup outing the previous night, the men in green were still in mighty competitive form as Kenny, Shane Breen and Greg Broderick came up with three of just six first round clears from a start list of 59.

They were joined by Italy’s Juan Carlos Garcia along with Ludger Beerbaum and Janne Friederike Meyer of Germany. Breen and Golden Hawk produced the opening double clear round in 43.67 seconds, before Kenny, on the Vigo d’Arsoullies gelding Go Easy De Muze, shaved almost two seconds of his time for a lead he never relinquished.

Next in, Thursday’s hero for Ireland, Greg Broderick on MHS Going Global went around clear in 41.98 for the runner-up position. Beerbaum gave it a good try with the great Contender mare, Chiara 222, but had to be content with third (42.73).

When last to go, Meyer finished with one pole down and it was all over, Ireland dominating the star-studded Grand Prix in first, second and fourth place.

With four faults each, Denis Lynch and Anthony Condon finished 12th and 13th.

PRESSURE

An absolutely brilliant pressure clear by Greg Broderick and the Irish-bred MHS Going Global in last Thursday’s first round saw Ireland through to the final eight nations to jump for €1.5 million in the Furusiyyia FEI Nations Cup final.

In Saturday night’s final, one fence and a single time fault kept the Irish team of Breen, Kenny, Lynch and Broderick out of a deciding jump-off for a top prize of €500,000. They finished a creditable fifth of 18 teams behind Germany, Great Britain, USA and Italy.

But Broderick’s clear in Thursday’s elimination round was surely the highlight of Ireland’s participation in this Nations Cup world final.

Last of the Irish to jump and drawn last of the contenders for a place in Saturday’s overall final of eight, he not only had to go clear but had to be quick.

At that stage title holders Belgium, along with Germany and USA had earned their places in the final on zero scores. Switzerland, Britain and Italy were through on four. The Netherlands and Brazil were filling the last two slots but a fast clear from Broderick could knock one of them out. FEI TV commentator Jessica Kurten noted: “Ireland’s place in the final is on a knife edge.” And so it was.

Greg said afterwards: “Darragh Kenny had been doing the figures and before I went in he told me I had to be around in less than 74 seconds if we were to beat the Brazilians. I changed my plan, cut corners, left out strides and as it turned out I was fastest of the day.”

Indeed he was. With the accuracy of a Tipperary hurler he was home in 73.71 on the superb Ita Brennan-bred gelding to confirm Ireland’s place among the world’s top eight for Saturday’s decider.

The format for this final produces show jumping at its very exciting and technical best. Saturday evening’s contest under lights in downtown Barcelona’s Real Club de Polo was scintillating, dramatic, emotional and all of the other positive adjectives that one could attribute to a show jumping event.

Among the most spine-tingling moments were pressure clears from Rio Olympic champions Nick Skelton and Big Star and retiring from team Germany legend Ludger Beerbaum on Casello that put Germany and Britain into a jump-off for the top prize and the iconic Furusiyya trophy, which was created in Ireland by Wicklow’s Ian Calder.

In the barrage Skelton opened for Britain with a solid clear in 41.57. But with some breathtaking turn backs Marcus Ehning found almost two seconds in it for the win. It was silver to Britain and on a four fault score USA took bronze.

The Irish picked up €110,000 for their effort, which team manager Robert Splaine termed “a high-class performance”. With due justice, Brazil won Sunday morning’s 10-team consolation ahead of Qatar and Columbia. It had been postponed to Friday due to a horrendous lightening storm.

REYNOLDS DOUBLE

Ireland's Judy Reynolds scored a unique double of dressage wins at the big Rolex show in Central Park, New York, last weekend. With her Olympic horse Vancouver K she first won the Open Dressage Grand Prix on the Friday evening, before going on to score 77.051% to take the Open Freestyle class on Saturday.