IRELAND’S Jonathan Corrigan secured his place on the podium in the four-star $200,000 1.55m Grand Prix at Ocala in Florida, when he placed third with the 12-year-old gelding Darius de Kerglenn.

There were 23 starters in the class, but just three combinations made it over the first-round course without fault. Corrigan was among them and was in the good company of American riders, Kent Farrington riding Toulayna and Laura Kraut riding Bisquetta.

The three went head to head in a jump-off and all three jumped clear again – Farrington taking the top spot in 38.62 seconds, followed by Kraut in second (39.01) and Corrigan in third (39.68).

Continuing the Irish success, Daniel Coyle placed sixth on Farrel, while Shane Sweetnam rode Gilona AO into eighth – both having incurred four faults in round one.

Afterwards, Corrigan commented on the first-round course: “When I walked it, I thought it was less challenging than it turned out to be. I think it was a bit more careful than it was big. The course designer did a great job, and it caught a lot of people in a lot of different places. Everything just turned up nice for me.”

Irish form

The World Equestrian Centre, Ocala Winter 3 kicked off on Wednesday, January 15th, when the four-star $1,000 1.40m two-phase class saw Daniel Coyle place third with Farrel, followed by Shane Sweetnam on Coriaan van Klapscheut Z in sixth.

The Irish form continued into Thursday, when the four-star $117,000 1.50m Grand Prix qualifier saw a fifth-place finish for Coyle on Langley and a sixth place for Sweetnam on Coriaan van Klapscheut Z.

Coyle went on to take second and third in the $1,000 1.35m class on board VDL Nimrod ES and Jameson respectively, while on Friday, the Derry man won the $1,000 1.35m class with Lena VDL.

On Saturday, Coyle took fifth place in the $15,000 1.40m class with Jameson.