THE Irish eventing team finished fifth in the FEI Eventing Nations Cup of The Netherlands at Boekelo last weekend, when Britain once again dominated the team standings, while Sweden won the overall FEI Nations Cup series for 2021.
Sally Corscadden’s team of Padraig McCarthy (MGH Tokyo Phil), Susie Berry (Ringwood LB (ISH), Felicity Ward (Regal Bounty (ISH) and Brian Morrison (Global DHI) were sixth of the nine teams after dressage.
Despite mixed fortunes on cross-country day, with two riders picking up 20 penalties for a run out, they moved up one place to fifth which they held on to in the final show jumping round, finishing on a final score of 162.7.
The British team of William Fox-Pitt (Grafennacht), Nicola Wilson (Coolparks Sarco, ISH), Izzy Taylor (Hartacker) and James Rushbrooke (Milchem Eclipse, ISH) won on a final score of 90.4, ahead of the USA (102.7), while Germany took third place on 127.7.
The cross-country course caused plenty of trouble throughout the day with a total of 11 eliminations and three retirements. Just 11 of the finishing 44 made it home inside the time. Ireland had a mixed day with both Berry and Morrison picking up 20 penalties, plus time faults. Ward was home with 15.2 time penalties, while McCarthy was the star performer picking up just 3.2 time penalties with MGH Tokyo Phil.
Having started well, that moved McCarthy up to 11th place after cross-country, and four faults on the final day was good enough to move him up again to ninth place, finishing on a score of 34.5.
Germany’s Sophie Leube landed victory on her second start at the level with Jadore Moi. The 34-year-old added just 0.4 show jumping time faults to her dressage score to finish on 24.8, ahead of British legend William Fox-Pitt (26.1).
Frenchman Sidney Dufresne (Tresor Mail) took the final spot on the podium on 27, just ahead of the newly crowned European champion Nicola Wilson with the Michael Burke-bred Irish Sport Horse Coolparks Sarco (Shannondale Sarco x Coolcorran Cool Diamond) in fourth. The other Irish horse on the winning British team was the Ralph Conroy-bred Milchem Eclipse who has no breeding recorded.