Ireland's Judy Reynolds finished fourth in the FEI World Cup dressage final in Omaha on Saturday night as Germany's Isabell Werth claimed her third title following victories in Gothenburg (1992) and Las Vegas (2007).
Performing to her 80’s divas-themed freestyle to music programme, Reynolds and the 15-year-old Jazz gelding Vancouver K, owned by her parents Joe and Kathleen, achieved a score of 79.571 per cent. A brilliantly choreographed floor plan saw her gain marks for the high degree of technical difficulty of her canter pirouette and piaffe/passage trot transitions.
Commenting on the result, Reynolds said: “I’m delighted. It was more then I was hoping for. The new freestyle transitions are all coming together and this is the most together Vancouver K and I have been since we debuted this freestyle in Stuttgart last November. Following the Grand Prix here on Thursday, I took on board some observations about the passage (elevated trot) sequence and I’m thrilled that we were scoring at 97 per cent for the degree of difficulty mark as we completed our final passage/piaffe trot sequence down the centre line.”
Werth, who rode her Rio Olympics team gold and individual silver medal winner Weihegold, finished on a score of 90.704 ahead of the USA's Laura Graves on Verdades (85.307) and Britain's Carl Hester riding Nip Tuck (83.757).
Speaking of her success, Werth stated: “It’s special to win again after 10 years, to come back with a different kind of horse and after a really great season. I’m very happy and I’m also thankful, because I know what it’s like to be downstairs, and I’m really happy and grateful to be upstairs again!”
In show jumping, Ireland's Daniel Coyle finished second in Saturday night's four-star Grand Prix in Wellington, Florida. Only two riders completed double clears, the Derry native stopping the clock on 43.85 with Ariel and Susan Grange's 11-year-old Holstein mare Cita while Chile's Samuel Parot was home in 42.52 on Atlantis.
In Cagnes-Sur-Mer, Kilkenny's Anna Carway recorded back-to-back victories in the 1.40m speed class with the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Ajaccio.
The second leg of this year's Connolly's Red Mills eventing superleague was held on Saturday in Tyrella, Co Down where Joseph Murphy topped the final leaderboard on 54.6 penalties with Annette O'Callaghan's 10-year-old Frankfort Boy gelding Fernhill Frankie.
