Millstreet ‘the ideal place to begin partnership with Carpe Diem’

HAVING off-loaded his top horses in recent months, Cian O’Connor has seized the moment and is back on the acquisition trail.

The Meath-based rider has purchased Carpe Diem, an 11-year-old gelding by Concorde, previously competed by Danish rider Torben Frandsen.

O’Connor believes he has the makings and character of two of his best horses.

“He has a lot of blood and is very careful. He’s somewhere between Waterford Crystal and Rancorrado. I saw him at Aachen show [in Germany] and took delivery of him in the past fortnight,” he said yesterday at a busy Millstreet Horse Show.

Having sold winners such as K Club Lady, Splendor and Larkhill Cruiser in the past few months, questions surrounded O’Connor’s next move, particularly in relation to the 2012 Olympics. Carpe Diem seems to be the answer, but O’Connor was not going to divulge anything except to say: “I think a lot of him, but I’ll let the horse do the talking in the arena.”

O’Connor said Millstreet was the ideal place to begin his partnership with Carpe Diem, and also to bring on the young horses among the 13 he has brought with him to the Cork event.

“Millstreet is great, as there are so many different classes to develop a relationship with a horse. With older horses, I do not try to impose my style too much. They will have their own way of doing things and I just try to work with them,” said O’Connor, who won his first international competition at Millstreet in 1999.

It was obvious too that he has a great relationship with a horse called Everything, producing a classy round with the bay gelding, owned by Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, to win yesterday’s Boomerang Qualifier.

O’Connor had over three seconds to spare in the two-phase class over Tipperary’s Trevor Breen and the seven-year-old Cruising-sired stallion Oldtown KC, which was a winner of the grand final of the Irish Sport Horse Studbook Show Jumping Series for 6/7-year-olds at Tattersalls last month, along with the league title. Yesterday’s class saw Stephen Moore and the King’s Master-sired RRC Black Magic finish third.

The action continues today at Millstreet with the first of the grand prix qualifiers, followed by an accumulator class.