JESSICA Burke showed her class in the four-star 1.55m Grand Prix at Rouen in France on Sunday, when she rode the Irish Sport Horse Express Trend into second place.
Out of the 50 starters, 12 made it through to the jump-off, where Burke jumped clear again in a time of 39.49 seconds. France’s Penelope Leprevost and Texas were just slightly faster (37.01 seconds) to claim first place.
Express Trend is a 13-year-old gelding by Future Trend (OLD) out of Condios Express (ISH) by Condios (HOLST) and was bred by Liam Nicholas.
Meanwhile, on Friday night at the same venue, Mayo’s Jonathan Gordon rode Capri to win the four-star 1.50m class by a slim margin.
From 70 starters, only eight managed to jump clear and get through to the jump-off, where Gordon was one of four to keep a clean sheet. His time of 35.40 seconds was a mere five-hundredths of a second faster than runner-up, Luxembourg’s Victor Bettendorf and Mr Tac, who finished in 35.45.
Capri is a 10-year-old mare by Gentleman out of Cadour 2 by Cador.