Kent Farrington puts an end to Ireland’s dominance
However, it was a close thing, with Tipperary’s Kevin Babington and Down’s Conor Swail hot on his heels. .
The contest boiled down to an eight-horse jump-off and Farrington’s time of 43.14 seconds with Uceko proved exceptional, with Babington and the 10-year-old mare Shorapur his closest rival, over two-and-a-half seconds slower.
Swail delivered the third fastest of the competition’s five double clears with Grand Cru vd Vijf Eiken, as he set out to demonstrate he warranted a place on Ireland’s nations cup team on Friday, even as he acknowledged manager Robert Splaine had been proven right by the team’s emphatic victory.
“My result today was particularly pleasing, as it vindicated my belief that the horse deserved a place on the nations cup team,” said Swail, before adding that Grand Cru vd Vijf Eiken, which picked up just a single time fault in the recent German nations cup in Mannheim, would not be available for the upcoming European Championships.
“The way I had it set up with the owner, we were jumping until Dublin and that was basically it. It’s not my horse, it’s my student’s horse, Vanessa Mannix and she’s doing a few shows in France in the next few weeks.
“I went to Mannheim specifically to get on the team in Dublin and I did what I thought was sufficient to get on, but unfortunately, I didn’t make it. That’s the end of my journey.
“There were five on the squad and someone has to get left off. That’s Robert’s decision, but I felt hard done by, seeing as my last outing was a double clear [in the German nations cup].
He said “obviously, Robert made a good choice”, as Ireland won last Friday’s nations cup.
“Ireland could field probably six riders that could have done the job [referring to himself and Denis Lynch]. It’s great, as it’s been a while that Ireland has been in that position.”
Asked how he would react if a situation arose that saw him called upon by Ireland manager Splaine to compete at the championships, where the goal is to achieve Olympic qualification, he said: “I think we’d have to see what the situation was. That would be a difficult one to answer, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” said Swail, who also made his mark on Saturday, winning the JLT Dublin Stakes with Simba de la Roque.
Earlier yesterday, Dermott Lennon wrapped up a memorable show for the former world champion with his third win.
The Down rider’s latest triumph came in the Speed Championship, as he teamed up with Vampire to shave five-hundredths of a second off the time set by Germany’s Hans-Dieter Dreher and Quiwi Dream.
Saturday’s feature, the Land Rover Puissance, with €30,000 on offer, lived up to its billing as a crowd-pleaser, not least for the performances of Venezuela’s Andres Rodriguez and Caballito and Egypt’s Sameh El Dahan on Seapatrick Cruise Cavalier.
At one stage, the former whipped off his jacket to reveal an Irish rugby shirt underneath eliciting a massive cheer from the capacity crowd. However, the day belonged to Antrim-based El Dahan, the only rider to scale 2.20mtr.
Saturday also saw Billy Twomey give Ireland its seventh individual international class win. The Corkman and Joe Flynn’s grey stallion Ardcolum Duke had almost two seconds of an advantage over Dutch rider Johnny Pals on Urjul van Generhese.
Meanwhile, Ireland picked up a second medal at the European Pony Championships in Malmo, Sweden, yesterday, withZara Nelson taking the individual bronze medal in eventing.
The Kilcullen, Co Kildare native, aboard Millridge Buachaill Bui, added just 1.6 time penalties on the cross-country to her dressage score.
On Friday, the Irish show jumping team of Olivia Roulston, Abbie Sweetnam, Luke Garrigan and Mikey Pender won silver. Pender and Imagine If One finished off yesterday with a fifth place in the battle for individual medals.
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