Dermott Lennon with Loughview Lou-Lou at Jumping In the City Shelbourne Park, photo Sonya Dempsey
Connolly’s RED MILLS Brand Ambassadors Dermott Lennon, Trevor Breen, Bertram Allen and Billy Twomey all produced stunning performances with their super-star horses this weekend, in Ireland the UK and mainland Europe.
Co Down’s Dermott Lennon began the Team RED MILLS March when he added yet another major win to his list of achievements, triumphing in The Underwriting Exchange Limited Grand Prix at a packed “Jumping In The City” Final in Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium, Dublin on Friday.
The Banbridge rider and the Judith Sossick owned Irish Sport Horse mare Loughview Lou-Lou, were last to go in the deciding jump-off and cheered on by up-to 3,000 spectators they shaved just over half-a-second off the target time set by Kildare’s Alexander Butler and Vimminka, to be crowned champions in a competition worth €15,000.
Lennon, who is a former World Show Jumping Champion, had an incredibly busy few days, as along with competing at the Jumping In The City Final he was also in action at the Hickstead Derby meeting in the UK, making a dash between UK and Irish airports in order to jump at both venues.
Shelbourne Park marked the final leg of the 2015 Jumping In The City series, which has also seen huge crowds attend at greyhound stadia in both Limerick and Cork earlier this month.
Meanwhile on Sunday, another RED MILLS team rider Trevor Breen, claimed the famous Hickstead Derby for the second year in a row.
Bertram Allen and Molly Malone
Tipperary native Breen, who last year won the Derby on Adventure de Kannan, took an early clear round with Patricia Brown’s Irish Sport Horse Loughnatousa WB and then had to watch 30 other competitors attempt to come home with a matching zero score. In an unusual twist, Breen also competed Adventure de Kannan in the Derby, effectively jumping against himself, but Karen Swann’s gelding had two rails down to finish further down the field.
With no other clear rounds recorded in the competition, Breen took home Hickstead’s Boomerang Derby Trophy and the 42,000 euro winner’s prize, with yet another Team RED MILLS rider, Cork’s Billy Twomey coming closest to his fellow countryman with just four faults on Diaghilev, finishing in equal second place.
Afterwards Breen said: “It’s amazing to win this famous competition two years in a row. I was very nervous at the end, as the last few horses came out, and my fingernails were bitten right down. Loughnatousa B was magnificent, and he’ll have a couple of weeks off now.”
To crown a superb weekend for Connolly’s RED MILLS horses and riders, Bertram Allen jumped what looked like an almost effortless two rounds in the Netherlands Grand Prix with Ballywalter Farms’s mare Molly Malone V, speeding home in the 13 horse jump-off in a blistering 42.79 seconds. Austria’s Julia Kayser came closest to Allen with the stallion Sterrehof’s Cayetano Z, but was over four seconds off the pace of the world’s number five-ranked rider.
Co Wexford teenager Bertram Allen collected a stunning Mercedes CLA car as his prize for the Grand Prix victory.
Tags: connolly's red mills, featured, full-image, international show jumping results, show jumping
Category: International, News, Results, Show Jumping
