O’Connor Takes Third in Austrian Grand Prix on Blue Loyd
IRELAND’S Olympic Bronze Medallist Cian O’Connor was reunited with his London mount Blue Loyd today (Sunday) for the Magna Racino Grand Prix at the three-star Ebreichsdorf show in Austria, and claimed third place.
The 34 year-old Meath-based rider was one of just seven combinations to get through to the jump-off from a starting list of 35, and though going clear again on the bay gelding – now owned by Canada’s Nicole Walker – he was over a second slower than Swiss winner Alexandra Fricker and Albfuehren’s Paille, who picked up the 7,800 euro first prize.
At Enschede in the Netherlands, meanwhile, 14 year-old Kilkenny rider Susan Fitzpatrick added to her weekend prize money with a fourth place in the Junior Grand Prix aboard her mother’s bay mare Isacorada. Fitzpatrick had earlier won the Pony Grand Prix at Enschede on Barbara O’Reilly-Hyland’s Rock Dee Jay, and had also posted several other top five places.
Ireland’s Jessica Kurten won Sunday’s Accumulator competition at Maastricht in the Netherlands with Contadoor, but a single fence down in the first round of the Grand Prix on VDL Zapatero a few hours later left the Antrim-born rider out of the prize money.
In the World Cup Grand Prix in Wellington, Florida on Saturday night, Richie Moloney was best of the Irish with an eighth place on the Irish Sport Horse Slieveanorra, with Jonathan Corrigan taking tenth with Olympic de Chamant. The class was won by the USA’s Charlie Jacobs on Flaming Star.
Note from Horse Sport Ireland
Category: International, News, Results, Show Jumping
