Curran impressed by Olympic venue facilities

If first impressions count, the Hong Kong Jockey Club is off to a good start as far as Olympic event rider Captain Geoff Curran is concerned.

The Waterford rider and his teammates arrived in the Far East this week and he has been impressed by the facilities at the Olympic venue.

“The stables are fantastic, with air-conditioning and rubber on the ground and whatever surface you require on top. They have thought of everything: There must be at least 15 arenas to work in and at the centre of the facility there is a large parkland to hack around and freshen up the horses,” he said.

However, the high humidity — which measures on average 82% in August — has made an equally strong impression and the organisers have striven to downplay the heat and humidity fears and have provided an air-conditioned indoor arena, four misting tents, chilled water troughs, chilled water sprays and mobile cooling units. A purpose-built veterinary clinic has also been built, staffed by vets with Olympic experience.

At this early stage, it is difficult to gauge the eventers’ chances of success. Firstly, though, defining what constitutes success is important.

In that regard, Capt Curran was prepared to say a top-five placing would merit congratulations.

The Army officer gave the sport a fillip recently with victory in the World Cup class at Tattersalls against a strong foreign challenge. Nevertheless, any thoughts of individual achievement will be qualified by instructions from high performance manager Ginny Elliot, who has declared that team performance is the main focus.

“Kilkishen is going very well, but how I do depends on the instructions for the team and in what order I go. The team gets priority, we have been told that all along,” said Curran.

He travelled to Hong Kong with Sydney Olympian Patricia Ryan (Fernhill Clover Mist), Austin O’Connor (Hobby Du Mee), Louise Lyons (Watership Down) and Niall Griffin (Lorgaine).

Team vet Marcus Swail and Patricia Ryan’s groom and sister Marion Donegan flew from Amsterdam with the horses, taking 21 hours “from stable to stable” according to Donegan.

Swail said all the horses “travelled brilliantly”.

In show jumping, Ireland is represented by Denis Lynch, whose horse Lantinus is due to arrive next Wednesday.

In total, Hong Kong will stable 229 horses.

IRELAND show jumping team manager Robert Splaine this week named a strong squad for next Friday’s Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show nations cup and, with relegation clouds gathering, he will be praying for an indian summer.

Sweden may have been propping up the Samsung Super League from the outset this season, but they showed they are far from beaten, finishing second in Hickstead last Friday, with Ireland fifth.

The result saw the Swedes close the gap on Ireland to just over five points, and, with Dublin the penultimate leg ahead of Barcelona, where double points add to the spice, the Scandinavians will be hopeful, if not confident, of maintaining their elite status.

Jessica Kürten was on the winning Dublin team in 2004 and this year returns to the RDS with her main horse, Castle Forbes Libertina, which carried the Antrim woman to victory in the grand prix at Gijon, Spain, last Friday. Denis Lynch will aim to improve on his display in Hickstead, where he finished with nine and four on Nabab’s Son. Likewise for Eddie Macken, who had 10 and four on First Tedechine Sept.

Cian O’Connor had creditable rounds of four-a-piece on Rancorrado, but is also named with Complete for Dublin, while Edward Doyle has been selected with Sequoyah Farms Utopia.

Lynch rode Nabab’s son to third in last night’s grand prix qualifier at the Global Champions Tour show at Valkenswaard, Netherlands, while Kürten four-faulted in round one with Jipey Dark for 21st place.

SHANE CONNELL was Ireland’s standard bearer in the European Pony Championships at Avenches, Switzerland, last weekend, the 15-year-old Longford rider steering Murphy’s Flight to equal sixth on an accumulated score of 16 penalties.

Galway 16-year-old Jessica Burke finished 12th with Bean Alaining on 20 penalties.

In the team contest, Burke and Connell both produced clears in round one, with Emily Turkington (Future Interest) and Richard Howley (Our Foreman) adding four apiece for a half-way score of four.

The second round saw a downturn, with O’Connell and Turkington augmenting the score by four and five respectively. Burke finished on eight, with Howley providing the discard score of 26 for a team total of 21.

In the eventing championships, clear rounds in the show jumping from David Hannigan (Castleview Rakish Milly) and Lauren Persse (Tullibard’s Squaw) helped Ireland to fifth place, as they teamed up with Joseph O’Brien (Calvin) and Melanie Young (Newtown Westie) for a team total of 223.2 penalties.

Hannigan’s individual score of 54.3 was good enough to earn him eighth place.

IT is all to play for in the Citroen Showjumping Ireland Premier Series, with Trevor Breen holding a

3.5 points lead on Tholm Keane with just two rounds remaining.

South County Dublin hosts the penultimate leg this Sunday but with points-and-a-half on offer a fortnight later in the Millstreet final, the series is set to go down to the wire.

Last Sunday, Conor Swail took the honours at the two-star international show in Tattersalls, Co Meath, riding Glen Leddy’s Gold Digger to victory with almost two seconds to spare in an 11-horse jump-off. The win put him in seventh place on the league table.

FOUR arenas will be in operation this Sunday, when the Ballinhassig Farmers stage their annual equestrian show in Ballinphellic, Waterfall, Co Cork.

There is €500 on offer for the 1.10m class and €300 in the 1.20m, with 19 competitions on the schedule.

Activities begin at 10am. More details: 087-2514215 or 087-2528980.