CORK’S Simon McCarthy rode Narcotique V/H Dingenshof to win a three-star 1.45m speed class in Lichtenvoorde, The Netherlands, last Thursday.

From a start list of 56, an impressive 23 jumped clear, but there was a difference of more than 20 seconds between McCarthy’s winning time (58.45) and the slowest of the fault-free rounds. He was over a second faster than the German runner-up, Gerrit Nieberg on Jolie Vh Molenhof, who stopped the clock at 59.68.

Much to the delight of the home crowd, Dutch rider Lars Kuster had held the lead with Heaven of Romance (61.99) - that is until McCarthy and his 11-year-old daughter of Harley entered the arena just over halfway through the class. They sped around the course, covering ground and cutting corners, and their time simply could not be beaten.

Liam Deery had top five successes when placing fifth with Milaviana in Wednesday’s one-star 1.25m Small Tour class; the pair followed this with a third place in Thursday’s equivalent and also finished third in the one-star 1.30m Small Tour class on Saturday.

Daly runner-up at Ocala

TRALEE native Dylan Daly had a super result with the 14-year-old Cinderella Z at the WEC Summer Series I at Ocala, Florida, over the weekend, when they jumped an impeccable double clear to claim second place in the two-star 1.45m Grand Prix qualifier.

From the 43 on the start list, only six jumped clear to get through to the jump-off, including fellow Irishman Paul O’Shea riding Spy, but despite them jumping a second clear round, they had to settle for sixth place as the slowest of the combinations.

Daly’s careful and quick time of 36.32 seconds with Cinderella Z, owned by Double C Stables, wasn’t quite fast enough to catch American winner Aaron Vale on Prescott (35.63), but they still took home $7,000 for their runner-up spot.