Glenhill strikes gold for Cullen at Ballindenisk Horse Trials

DECLAN CULLEN claimed the feature three-star class at the Johnson & Perrott Land Rover International Horse Trials in Ballindenisk, Co Cork, yesterday.

The Armagh rider produced a jumping clear on Saturday’s cross-country with the stallion Glenhill Gold and went into yesterday’s show jumping phase in second place behind Belgium’s Karin Donckers (Lamicell Charizard), after both benefited from the withdrawal of overnight leader, Briton Chloe Newton and the Cork-bred Newmarket Vasco One.

On a day when clears were at a premium — the long-format CCI competition yielding just one — Armagh rider Cullen added eight show jumping faults to his tally for a completion of 62.4 penalties.

This gave him a single penalty lead, following the late challenge of British raider Matthew Wright (Dark Crusader) and, when Donckers proceeded to accumulate 20 faults, the title was Cullen’s. In a very tight contest, his fellow Armagh rider, Jayne Doherty, filled third with Ravenstar on 64pens.

Wright earlier had noted that he had “cleaned up” at Ballindenisk five years ago, as reminisced after he had finished on his dressage score of 45.2pens to take the CCI two-star with Fernhill Express. He had much praise for the event, noting that the organisers had “really upped their game” as he complemented the organisation and hospitality.

There was even greater interest in British Royal, Zara Phillips, following the indiscretions of her husband of six-weeks, Mike Tindall, as captain of the England rugby team in New Zealand. There was little sign it was distracting her, though, as she put behind the disappointment of previous competitions with Lord Lauries to record victory in the CIC three-star.

Local interest was served by Brian Morrison, who showed superb composure to win the CIC two-star with the borrowed Fernhill By Night.

The Clonakilty 20-year-old picked up the ride on the eight-year-old gelding two weeks ago after owner Julie O’Neill went on holiday for a month.

“It’s my biggest win to date. Days like this make all the hard work worth it,” said Morrison, who had no room for error in the show jumping arena, but proved equal to the challenge of Czech Jaroslav Hatla (Second Supreme) to win by just 2.6 penalties.

O’Neill had returned to witness the win and put paid to any notion Morrison had of retaining the horse, joking: “Not a hope.”

At the European Championships in Madrid, Corkonians Billy Twomey (Tinka’s Serenade) and Shane Sweetnam (Amaretto D’Arco) placed 15th and 17th, respectively. The gold medal went to Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (Ninja La Silla), while Germany’s Carsten-Otto Nagel (Corradina) took silver and Britain’s Nick Skelton (Carlo) won the bronze.