O’Connor confident Cruiser can rise to the occasion
The Cruising gelding was selected by manager Robert Splaine over Splendor, but the Meath-based rider said the latter felt below par.
“Originally, I was to jump Splendor, but he felt a bit empty warming up and we were not happy with the way he jumped. Larkhill, on the other hand, jumped well today in what was a big class. A lot of horses were spooky in the big arena, but he pricked his ears and went around like a pro and Robert liked him and asked if I would jump him in the nations cup,” said O’Connor.
Cruiser was one of the most successful horses on the domestic circuit with John Floody and in O’Connor’s hands he has continued to excel and the Irish nations cup stalwart is confident he can reach new heights today.
“It is a big step up in class for him, but no more than K Club Lady this time last year, if they regularly jump at 1.50m, they can step up to the next level if they are genuine horses. It will be the biggest day of his life, but I would not ride him if I did not believe he could give a good account of himself,” said O’Connor.
Billy Twomey’s Romanov gets the nod ahead of the Je t’Aime Flamenco, the stallion that carried the Corkman to victory in last weekend’s Global Champions Tour contest in Valencia, Spain. Romanov, a 13-year-old chestnut stallion has represented Britain at nations cup level and was acquired late last year by Twomey, who rates him highly. Recently, he showed his class when placing in a grand prix at the World Cup finals in Leipzig.
The Rebel County is also represented in today’s contest by Shane Sweetnam (Amaretto Darco), who is the pathfinder, while Cameron Hanley and Southwind VDL fill the anchor position.
Fate dealt Ireland a good draw last night, with Splaine’s quartet sixth in the running order against teams from the US, Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany and newcomers Belgium and Denmark in the €200,000 competition.
With all Ireland’s efforts this season revolving around Olympic qualification at September’s European Championships in Madrid, the nations cup series is certain to be affected by its gravitational pull. As such, O’Connor concurred that a good start is essential today.
“If we get points on the board early, it will take the pressure off towards the end, that’s the objective. Rob is lucky he has five good riders to call on. For sure, there are stronger teams here, but in terms of riders, we are stronger than anybody and while you can’t do it on two legs, we are all hugely experienced, even if our horses are not, so hopefully we can make up for that.”
l“THE need to recognise and reward success, and the need for new incentives for breeders” are at the heart of the Reid Report — Breeding for Success, published this week by Eventing Ireland.
The report, compiled under the chairmanship of John Reid, comes as the Irish eventing studbook occupies second place in the world rankings, having held the number one position for an impressive 15 years.
The Barn at Fellowsfield in Co Kildare was the venue for the launch of the report, which has four objectives: To identify and develop a breeding programme which would ultimately allow Irish horses to win medals and championships internationally; to encourage the production of a horse which is competitively hardy and talented and is saleable worldwide; to help breeders to be more profitable, and to recognise and reward their breeding success; and to improve the database of statistical information and access to it.
The 32-page document “proposes the establishment of a research project to identify successful eventing mare families, along with a study of the percentage of thoroughbred blood in suitable sport-horse stallions”.
The report contains an analysis by William Micklem, who points out that while “the old system for stallion inspections has failed to talent-spot potential stars, and many of the stallions standing have failed to sire top-class competition horses on a regular basis, Eventing Ireland has a structure for producing young horses through competition which is, at present, as good if not better than nearly all of our competitors”.
Micklem points to the trend for owners of top mares to go outside these shores for sires, using AI. However, he stresses that: “We must never allow the key hereditary component of the Irish mare to be diluted. Any possible gain to the sport of eventing may potentially be seen as a loss to our inherent breeding industry.”
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