ACTION continued at the second week of the Autumn Mediterranean Equestrian Tour III last week, with Irish riders giving a good account of themselves.

Last Thursday (December 7th), saw an Irish one-two, with Michael Pender winning a 1.30m Two-phase class with HHS Fortune, followed by Niall Talbot with Deep Sea Semilly in second. This followed Pender placing joint-seventh with HHS Savanna in the MET Young Horse Seven-year-old Champion Trophy on Wednesday.

On Friday, Talbot placed seventh in the 1.40m Two-phase Silver Grand Prix qualifier with H’Ayla Verano, a position which he bettered in the 1.45m Grand Prix qualifier when placing second with FTS Elliot. Pender went one better again when he won a 1.40m class with HHS Fortune.

Pender followed this up with another win on Saturday, when taking the top spot in the 1.40m Silver Tour Grand Prix with HHS Cornetta.

On Sunday, the 1.45m Two-phase class saw a joint eighth place for Michael G Duffy riding Velvet Underground 4. Meanwhile, Joanne Sloan-Allen rode WKD Valencia into fourth place in the 1.20m class.

In the 1.50m Grand Prix, Pender and HHS Calais came 10th after an unfortunate four faults in the first round. The class was won by Spain’s Mariano Martinez Bastida on Jup, who jumped double clear and had a jump-off time of 33.91 seconds.