Shane Sweetnam gets timing just right with World Equestrian Games on the horizon

By Mike Dunne

Just two weeks out from the start of show jumping at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in North Carolina, Irish team member Shane Sweetnam was in terrific form at the Hampton Classic show in New York at the weekend where he netted the features classes on Friday and Saturday before taking second in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

It earned him a bonus of $30,000 as leading rider to add to his prize money haul and he went away with no less than four Longines watches, one for each of the three classes in which he starred and a fourth to go with the leading rider award.

It was great to go there and be so competitive in all the major classes,” Sweetnam told the Irish Examiner yesterday.

Friday’s win in the Douglas Elliman Grand Prix qualifier and Saturday’s success in the Longines Cup were both scored with Indra van de Oude Heihoef, while on Sunday in the Longines Grand Prix it was his Aga Khan mount Main Road who netted second place after a five-way jump-off.

The Cork rider was last to jump and was chasing the target set by American McLain Ward on HH Gigi’s Girl and, though leaving all fences standing, the pairing fell short on the clock but were fast enough for the runner-up slot.

He now takes a break ahead of the WEG in which he will ride his European Championship gold winner Chaqui Z. The horse was spared the bigger events in New York but did some schooling runs in national classes there. “Obviously I’m priming him for the WEG so I didn’t want to put too much pressure on him there,” Sweetnam said. “He’s in great form. I’ve done a similar programme to what I did last year for the Europeans. He’s in great shape, so fingers crossed that we can replicate the form of last year.”

The Irish team manager Rodrigo Pessoa has had to call up a replacement for Darragh Kenny whose intended mount Babalou had to undergo an operation for colic. The Offaly rider has been replaced in the line-up by Shane Breen who will ride Ipswich van de Wolfsakker.

It’s a big loss,” Sweetnam said. “Darragh and the horse were a great combination to have. Shane Breen has been fantastic all summer so I don’t think we’re any weaker. He’s an experienced rider. We have good depth in the team so that helps us to be in a strong position.

“We’ll just keep moving forward.”

Cian O’Connor (Good Luck) and Paul O’Shea (Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu) complete the Irish quartet with Michael Duffy and EFS Top Contender traveling as the reserve combination.

The Irish eventing squad, who will be in action at the championships this day week, also had to call up a replacement after an injury to Aoife Clark whose place as the traveling reserve rider will be filled by Patricia Ryan with Dunrath Eclipse.

Clark had a fall at Millstreet and although not suffering any apparent consequences the concussion rule means she wouldn’t have been cleared in time for the travel date for the horses.

“This is most unfortunate for Aoife after producing a very good preparation run with Fernhill Adventure when finishing sixth in the CIC3* at Hartpury,” said eventing team manager Sally Corscadden.

Cork rider Ryan joined the squad for its final preparation day. “Patricia had a very good individual result at Luhmulhen CCI4* in June and we wish he the best of luck,” Corscadden said.

The original team of four remains unchanged and consists of Padraig McCarthy (Mr Chunky), Cathal Daniels (Rioghan Rua), Sarah Ennis (Horseware Stellor Rebound) and Sam Watson (Horseware Ardagh Highlight).

Capt. Geoff Curran scored a double at Barnadown at the weekend winning the final round of the National Grand Prix series on Drumiller Lough on Saturday and following up by partnering Ringwood Glen to take the TRM/Horse Sport Ireland New Heights Champions series concluding round on Sunday. Greg Broderick’s third place finish in Sunday’s event on Duco was enough top see him top the overall standings.

I couldn’t be more thrilled with Duco,” said Broderick. “He’s been very consistent. He’s up and running now and he should be a very exciting horse for some of the nations cups next year hopefully.

Though not in the mix on Saturday, Liam O’Meara had done enough to take first and second overall in the National GP League standings with Mr Coolcaum and Curraghgraigue Jack Take Flight respectively.