DERRY’s Jordan Coyle recorded a five-star victory at the Palm Beach Masters in Wellington, Florida, last week.

Riding the 11-year-old gelding Eristov, owned by Elan Farm, he came out on top in Friday’s $89,500 Grand Prix qualifier. The pair were the fastest of 22 clear rounds in a time of 67.27 seconds to earn $29,535.

Cork’s Billy Twomey finished third with his own and Sue Davis’ Lady Lou (0/ 69.62), just ahead of Wexford’s Bertram Allen and Gun Powder in fourth (0/69.98).

With a strong group of owners, Coyle is working to develop a string of new horses. “I jumped the 1.45m [$36,600 Suncast Welcome Stake] yesterday and went fast, which is something I never would do with him, and then also went for the win today. I think, actually, after doing it, it’s something I should do more often, because he came in and he enjoyed it,” he said afterwards.

“A year [or] six months ago, I would have never been able to do this, because I only had [Eristov in my string]. It’s great that we can use all the horses now.”

Grand Prix to Waldman

Israel’s Dani G. Waldman won what may prove to be the final five-star Grand Prix for a number of weeks last Sunday.

The show took the decision to run the until the end and see out the feature class of the week, the $300,000 Grand Prix. Alan Wade designed a challenging 1.60m track for the 40 starters, with just six making it through to the jump-off, including Ireland’s Billy Twomey with Lady Lou.

Second to go against the clock, Waldman guided the 11-year-old Queensland E to a clear round in 38.01 seconds to go straight into the lead. Twomey was last to go against the clock with his own and Sue Davis’ 11-year-old mare Lady Lou, and they posted the fastest time of the class but were sadly eliminated for blood when exiting the arena, and relegated to sixth place.

USA’s Brian Moggre finished second with MTM Vivre le Reve (0/4 37.52), ahead of USA’s Jessica Springsteen with RMF Zecile (0/4 37.78). Ireland’s Paul O’Shea picked up a single time fault in the first round to finish seventh with Imerald van’t Voorhof.