Superb Swail soars aboard Count Me In to end Ireland's Aga Khan drought
BACK IN HOME HANDS: Ireland’s Conor Swail celebrates with the Aga Khan trophy to the crowd on the teams lap of honour. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady
Conor Swail and Count Me In delivered a dramatic jump-off victory for Ireland over France to end a seven-year drought for the hosts in the Aga Khan Cup at the RDS this evening.
It set the seal on a dream week for showjumping on these islands, as it came just seven days after Ireland had secured qualification to the Paris Olympics by finishing fourth at the World Championships in Herning, agonisingly close to a medal.
For much of proceedings, it looked as if Michael Blake’s squad were in control at the Simmonscourt arena, but such are the tight margins at the highest level that it needed a clear round from anchor man, Cian O’Connor and his Tokyo Olympics horse Kilkenny just to make the jump-off.
With Kilkenny just returning to this level of competition after a lengthy break and James Kann Cruz (Shane Sweetnam) and Berlux Z (Max Wachman) lacking the necessary gears, the responsibility for completing the comeback was entrusted to Swail.
Blake had made that decision this morning, which was why he sent Count Me In as pathfinder, allowing the 15-year-old sufficient recovery time in the event of a jump-off.
And it paid off as Swail, who had already delivered a double clear, quickly got ahead on the clock between the first and second obstacles, finishing a second and a half quicker than Marc Dilasser and Arioto Du Gevres in a time of 30.31.
“I actually didn’t know whether I was quick enough. I looked at the screen and it said ‘2’ and ‘2’ is no good!” said Swail, who ironically, was competing at the Dublin Horse Show for the first time since Ireland’s last Aga Khan Cup triumph in 2015. Now 51, the Co Down native, whose brother Marcus is the team vet, is in the form of his life and sits at fourth in the world rankings.
“This horse is one of the best horses in the world if not the best horse. He’s fast, he’s careful, he can jump anything and I’m glad we were able to do it today. A great result for us.”
Scariff man Blake was visibly moved by the success and the reaction of a jammed main arena.
“That was a lot of drama for me. I was hoping we might have got it finished a little earlier. But there was a good fightback there from Cian to keep us in the game and Conor, wasn’t he just amazing today? On a small little horse – he’s just a big pony – and he did three clear rounds. All the winning that horse has done this year,” marvelled Blake.
“I can’t be thankful enough to be able to work with these guys. They’re so good, so professional. We had a few little rubs along the way we weren’t really expecting but when we had to fight back, we fought back.
“You have no idea how much this means to me. To get the Olympic Games qualification and the Aga Khan in seven days, that’s just the stuff of dreams. I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it because I love the sport. I dreamed it. There’s no other feeling like it.
“Team jumping is just the most amazing thing. The excitement that was there today, where would you see that anywhere else? We’re jumping all day and it ends up a competition between two horses.
“When the crowd get behind you, it does lift you. When you go in there, it blows you back. To see the crowd that were here today and how they appreciated that. And they probably appreciated it going to a third round but it wasn’t enjoyable for me!”
Ireland led on zero faults after the first round, with Swail, Cork man Sweetnam and Kildare native O’Connor all foot perfect. Tipperary 19-year-old Max Wachman, who is trained by O’Connor and was making his Aga Khan debut just a few months after sitting his Leaving Cert, almost joined them but had the last down. He will never forget his introduction to a unique atmosphere in global showjumping, however, and had only one down in the second round also.
That came after Swail’s second clear and Sweetnam and his Irish-bred nine-year-old partner looked set to emulate the first-line duo, only to get too close to the final jump.
That ramped the pressure up on O’Connor but the Olympic medallist, the only survivor from the last successful Aga Khan Cup-winning squad, a teammate of Sweetnam’s when Ireland won the European Championships two years later and by far the most capped Nations Cup rider in Ireland’s history, revels in such situations and with his 10-year-old partner answering his every call, they delivered the flawless round required to set up the final, tense, chapter.
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