IRISH jockeys were out of luck, but an Irish bred horse came to the fore in Geneva last night when a brilliant double clear from the Coevers gelding Tomboy boosted Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa to the head of the field in the Volvo World Cup final after he had finished fifth in yesterday's second leg.
The 23 year old Pessoa, who is based in Brussels, rode a brilliantly calculated jump off round, never asking the 13 year old Tomboy to gallop flat out in a vain attempt at catching the defending champions, Nick Skelton and the mare Dollar Girl.
The British aces time of 44.07 in the seven horse barrage was truly unbeatable, but Pessoa knew that a good clear would be enough to boost him to the top of the points table and leave him with the clear advantage of a last to go draw in tomorrow's final leg.
The tactics paid off and, although last night's performance was only good enough for fifth, that result combined with Thursday's runner up slot put the Brazilian two points clear of Austria's Hugo Simon and Willi Melliger of Switzerland.
Nick Skelton had no option but to go for a clear cut victory if his hopes of retaining the Volvo title were to be realised. The 16 year old Dollar Girl responded in brilliant style, slicing off a full half second from the target set by Dutchman Jan Tops and cop Gun La Silla, the Hannoverian gelding that was previously a member of Skelton's Warwickshire string.
Unfortunately, the Irish angle ended with Pessoa. Both Eddie Macken and Peter Charles failed, to find the key to Paul Weier's technically challenging 13 fence track. Macken and the French bred Miss FAN were superb down the difficult middle line, but the mare knelt on the following stile, trailed a toe at the planks and was then lucky not to fall after putting down behind on the final over. She was definitely sore as she walked out and the 12 faults dropped her to joint 24th in the rankings.
Peter Charles and his European gold medal mount La Ina were one of 18 combinations toe hit the bogey third, a seemingly innocuous upright, and then had the front rail off the unlucky 13th. The European champion had been hoping for a good placing to put him in touch with the leaders for tomorrow's final, but those two fences down kept him in 16th overall.
