DERRY’s Jordan Coyle enjoyed an incredible week at the five-star Spruce Meadows in Calgary, racking up no less than four victories, three of which came on one horse.

The first victory came aboard the 12-year-old gelding Picador in Wednesday’s 1.50m Table A. Some 100 combinations started in the class, over Santiago Varela’s track, and despite heavy rain Coyle posted the winning round in a time of 62.05 seconds to earn $11,915 and claim his fifth win of the overall 2019 Spruce Meadows Summer Series.

USA’s Molly Ashe Cawley slotted into second place with Balous Day Date (0/ 63.70), just ahead of Ireland’s Conor Swail in third with GK Coco Chanel (0/64.08). Coyle was runner-up in the eight-year-old class aboard Centriko Volo later in the day.

The following day, he was back in the winner’s enclosure, this time aboard Elan Farm’s 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Dundalk (Ard VDL Douglas x Horace) in the 1.45m. Coyle only began riding the Aiden Lambe-bred gelding two weeks ago and the pair collected $13,200 when finishing ahead of the USA’s Spencer Smith.

Another win for Lennon

Dermott Lennon also landed a five-star victory on Thursday, in the 1.50m Table A aboard the consistent Irish Sport Horse MJM Pursuit (N-Aldato x Limmerick).

Only 13 of the 53 riders who started over the big track in the pouring rain produced clear rounds. Australian rider Rowan Willis set the standard of 62.07 seconds but Lennon and MJM Pursuit made it look easy with a clear round and a time of 61.40 to top the leader board.

Richie Moloney also produced a clear, but in a slower time of 64.91 to finished seventh with Ypäjä Yando.

“I’m delighted with MJM (Pursuit), she went super today. She was a bit unlucky yesterday and pulled a shoe and had a couple down. Today with the weather you just had to give them (the horses) time get back and jump the rails, but other than that the footing was fine,” Lennon said afterwards.

Cormac Hanley earned just over €5,000 when he guided VDL Cartello to fifth place in Thursday’s feature 1.55m jump-off class. Hanley was one of seven double clears in a time of 46.10 secods. Conor Swail was the slowest of the double clears with GK Coco Chanel to finished seventh. Victory went to Mexico’s Patricio Pasquel and Babel (0/0 43.77).

Jordan Coyle’s second victory with Niclas Haking and Moa Rautenberg’s Picador came in Saturday’s winning round 1.50m class. Jumped over two rounds of competition, the top 10 riders from the first round return for the second in their reverse order of ranking.

Canada’s Mario Deslauriers held pole position as Coyle entered the ring last to go. A masterful round saw him lower the winning time by almost a second to 50.66 seconds to take victory and $44,125. Conor Swail picked up four faults in the second round to finished fifth with GK Coco Chanel.

Coyle credited his horse, saying: “He’s (Picador) unbelievable, I’ve never had a horse quite like him. He’s always ready to go and just fast. I can trust him to jump the jumps and that makes my job easier.”

Sunday saw both the Coyle brothers from Derry land victories at the Calgary venue. Daniel won the seven-year-old 1.40m with Ariel Grange’s mare Amalia, who was winning her fourth class in a month at the venue.

Incredible finish

Jordan finished off an incredible week when landing the 1.50m Table C class and, in the process, the 2019 Alberta Power Speed Challenge.

Throughout the Spruce Meadows Summer Series, riders competed over the same speed course each week in an attempt to accumulate points. The horse and rider combination with the most points wins the Challenge.

Going into the final event, Coyle and Picador were the top contenders for the series win. USA’s Beezie Madden riding Jiva and Daniel riding Leilani were hot on his tail, sitting in second and third respectively.

Daniel was holding down both first and second place as Madden entered the ring with Jiva. The pair flew around the course and laid down a lightning fast time of 75.96, one second faster than Daniel’s quicker horse, CHS Krooze (ISH), to take the lead.

Jordan was last to go and crossed the finish line with a time of 75.67 seconds to secure both the class and overall challenge. Jordan produced one of just two double clears to finish runner-up in Sunday’s feature 1.50m Derby class. He rode Elan Farm’s Eristov to one of three clears in the first round and his time against the clock of 37.16 was just slower than Australia’s Rowan Willis.