Curran trails as Townend sets high standard

Capt Geoff Curran trained his sights on Ollie Townend at the Johnson & Perrott Land Rover International Horse Trials in Ballindenisk yesterday, ruing that the Briton’s superb performance in the dressage had blown away what would generally be considered a respectable score from the Army officer.

Townend holds the top two places in the short-format CIC three-star with Imperial Master (40.2 penalties) and ODT Sonas Rovatio (43.5pens) at the Cork fixture, with Curran lying equal seventh on board The Jump Jet.

“I scored 48.9 penalties, which normally wouldn’t be too bad, but unfortunately, Ollie Townend set such a high standard, I am over eight penalties off the pace.”