Trevor Coyle and the stallion Cruising, who received a heroes' welcome when claiming their second consecutive Millstreet World Cup qualifier at the beginning of last month, boosted their international fan club still further when scoring in the Swiss equivalent at Geneva yesterday.

The Irish sport horse sire, which combines stud duties with a top international show jumping career and has progeny competing successfully all over the globe, was one of eight through to the timed round and drew the fifth slot against the clock.

Belgium's Francois Mathy had set the early target and, as Coyle and Cruising galloped into the arena, Frenchman Jean-Marc Nicholas and Switzerland's Willi Melliger were holding onto the minor placings.

But the Irish duo were to change all that and, with Coyle finding the most economic route to the fences and Cruising offering the most economic route over them, they were through the finish 0.3 seconds to the good, confirming the brilliance that had left them eighth best in the world at the World Equestrian Games two months ago.

France's Alexandra Ledermann and America's Katie Monahan were still waiting in the wings, but neither could find the speed to beat Coyle, leaving the Irishman to cruise to victory and a 40-point tally in the overall World Cup series that should comfortably allow him through to the final next Easter.

Coyle will now travel to this week's Olympia Christmas show in London and will be joined by Peter Charles, who went out in the first round of the Geneva competition with a single error from Traxdata Nustria.