Sweetnam and Babington in Irish squad for Meydan opener

US-BASED show jumpers Shane Sweetnam and Kevin Babington are among a five-man squad named yesterday for next week’s Meydan Nations Cup Series opener in La Baule, France.

Tipperary native Babington – a member of Ireland’s 2001 European gold-medal winning team – has been selected with Souvenir, the horse he rode on the team that placed joint second in the US nations cup in Florida in February.

Kanturk rider Sweetnam also played an instrumental part that day and travels to France with Amaretto d’Arco.