KILKENNY-born Richie Moloney and the Irish Sport Horse Slieveanorra tonight (Sunday) took a spectacular second place in the 500,000 dollar Grand Prix at Wellington in Florida, the climax of the US 12-week Winter Equestrian Festival.

Pipped to the winner’s prize of 120,000 euro by Britain’s World Number One Scott Brash by just over a second in the seven horse jump-off, the Irish rider nevertheless collected 73,000 euro for his runner-up place.

Tension surrounded the FTI-sponsored five-star Grand Prix over the weekend, with torrential rain and thunderstorms forcing the Palm Beach Equestrian Centre to cancel the competition on Saturday night, with competitors then having to re-prepare their horses for a rescheduled Sunday contest.

However, 38 of the world’s top riders turned out in bright sunshine today for a share of the rich half million dollar prize purse, but a punishing first round course left just seven with zero scores and a ticket for the jump-off finale to the winter festival, with Moloney the only Irish qualifier.

Though briefly holding the lead with a brilliant round that produced a zero score and a time of 43.64 seconds, 32 year-old Moloney saw Brash, Britain’s Olympic team Gold Medallist, shave 1.2 seconds off his time with the bay gelding Hello Sanctos, to claim victory.

The Irish Sport Horse gelding Slieveanorra was bred in Co. Monaghan by Ronnie Hollinger.

Fellow Irish rider Ronan McGuigan and the gelding Capall Zidane, who have already won a  Grand Prix at the Florida festival, picked up another 3,700 euro today when finishing third behind Kenny.

Olympian Cian O’Connor also featured today, taking eighth place with the mare Quidam’s Cherie in the big jump-off class that was won by the USA’s Beezie Madden and Cortes C, while in the opening competition on Wednesday Darragh Kenny slotted Alpha VDL into third, with Kilkenny’s Richie Moloney adding to the strong Irish presence with a sixth place on the Dutch-bred Alsvid.

In what is the last week of the international festival at the Palm Beach showgrounds in Wellington, Irish competitors will be hoping for a further share of the prize money in Saturday’s final Grand Prix, when half a million US dollars will be on offer to the top-ranked finishers.

Horse Sport Ireland