Co Derry’s Daniel Coyle continued his recent good run of form when winning the $100,000 Prix De Penn at the Pennsylvania Horse Show in Harrisburg on Saturday night.
Drawn eighth in the 10 horse jump-off, Coyle came home clear in 33.63 seconds on Susan and Ariel Grange’s 11-year-old Belgian-bred mare Fortis Fortuna to beat local rider Callan Solem into second on VDL Wizard (35.44) with Colombian Ilan Bluman finishing third on Ladriano Z (36.13).
Afterwards, Coyle said: “I saw Ilan’s run and it was good and fast. To be honest, I wasn’t sure that I was going to be any faster. I had a plan to be as fast as I could and if that turned out to be good enough then it would be good, it was all I could do. This is my first time here and it is a brilliant show. I love the crowd’s reaction and I love that they really try to make it exciting for us. I like the show and I will definitely be back!”
The USA’s Christine McCrea finished fourth on Nektarina B (37.88), just ahead of her compatriot, Katie Dinan, with the Irish Sport Horse gelding Dougie Douglas (38.26) which topped last November’s Goresbridge supreme sale of show jumpers when making €1.4 million. Tipperary native Kevin Babington placed sixth riding Shorapur with four faults in 34.65.
At home, the main show jumping action of the weekend took place at the Cavan Equestrian Centre where, on Sunday, the Horse Sport Ireland five and six-year-old mares’ championship was won by Greg Broderick riding Paddy Quinlan’s home-bred Santa Catalina, a 2010 grey by Capitalist out of Buenos Aires (by Ghareeb).
In eventing, the Irish Sport Horse Studbook finished third at the world breeding championships for young horses at Le Lion d’Angers, France on a penalty score of 168.2.
As the show jumping phase concluded on Sunday, the Selle Francais studbook (154.6) narrowly beat the Dutch Warmblood studbook (154.7). Among the horses contributing to the latter group’s score was the six-year-old winner, Fire Fly, ridden by Australia’s Chris Burton. Germany’s Ingrid Klimke won the seven-year-old class with the Holstein mare Weisse Duene.
The best placed Irish riders were Sophie Richards, who finished seventh in the CCI1* for six-year-olds with Gary Hadden’s home-bred Harlequin du Carel gelding Business Class, while Cathal Daniels placed 14th in the CCI2* on Margaret Kinsella’s Imperial Hights gelding Sammy Davis Junior.
In Kentucky, Michael Nolan finished fifth in Section A of the CCI1* at Lexington on Sunday with the seven-year-old Loughehoe Guy gelding SBT Good Guy. The class was won by another Irish-bred, the 11-year-old Warcraft gelding Rehy USA ridden by American Megan O’Donoghue.
Roland Tong, Ireland’s sole senior representative at the three-star dressage show in Le Mans, had a good weekend with his own and Sandra Kirkpatrick;s 11-year-old Trento B gelding Rybrook Ambience, finishing fifth in the Grand Prix on Friday and third in Saturday evening’s Grand Prix Kür (freestyle to music).
