Moloney Victory at Wellington Sixth Win for Ireland This Weekend
A WIN in the $33,000 Suncast 1.50m Championship Jumper Classic at Wellington, Florida tonight (Sunday) by Kilkenny’s Richie Moloney and the Irish Sport Horse Slieveanorra brought Ireland’s weekend tally of international show jumping victories to a total of six.
Thirty-one entries showed in the Florida class, over a course set by Germany’s Olaf Peterson, Jr.
Eight competitors cleared the first round course without fault and seven went double clear in the jump-off. It was the Irish horse/Irish rider combination of Moloney and Slieveanorra that completed the fastest clear round in 32.91 seconds for the win. The pair was additionally honoured with the Champion Equine Insurance Jumper Style Award for the Horseware Ireland-sponsored week ten of Wellington’s Winter Equestrian Festival.
“The first round he was being very careful,” Moloney said after his win. “When he is on form, he normally doesn’t want to knock the jumps down, so he was definitely on form today.”
Earlier tonight, a Grand Prix win by Tipperary’s Trevor Breen brought Ireland’s total of weekend victories to five.
The 34 year-old rider piloted the bay gelding Adventure de Kannan to first place at Vilamoura’s three star show in Portugal, narrowly beating France’s Marie Robert and Rhune d’Euskadi to the 15,000 euro prize in a 14 horse jump-off.
Antrim’s Jessica Kurten notched up Ireland’s fourth show jumping victory when she won at ‘s-Hertogenbosh on Saturday, romping home with more than two seconds in hand over nearest challenger, Britain’s Scott Brash and the bay gelding Whisky Mac IV.
On Friday night Trevor Breen’s brother Shane tasted victory in the jump-off class at Vilamoura in Portugal, riding the stallion Balloon, while in Braunschweig in Germany, 17 year-old Wexford native Bertram Allen took first place in the big speed class aboard Billy Twomey’s mare Molly Malone V.
The first Irish victory of the weekend, however, went to Co. Down’s Conor Swail, who led five Irish riders into the top ten at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, riding the mare Martha Louise.
Shane Sweetnam was best of the Irish in Saturday night’s Horseware Grand Prix at the American venue, taking third place on Eregast van’t Kiezelhof, with Japan’s Eiken Sato and Espyrante claiming the 27,000 dollar winner’s prize purse.
Colin McClelland, Horse Sport Ireland
Category: International, News, Show Jumping
