FOR the second week in-a-row, Irish riders landed a heap of four-star wins at the Sunshine Tour in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain.
Warrenpoint’s Adam Morgan has been enjoying an excellent run of form since joining Sean Cubitt’s Bruntwood Stables and he got off to a winning start in Thursday’s 1.40m. Thirty eight of the starting 60 were clear in the one round speed and Morgan guided the 14-year-old Warrior’s Glory to victory in a time of 57.23 seconds.
USA’s Adam Prudent finished second, ahead of Britain’s James Davenport in third. Ireland Sean Monaghan slotted into seventh place with Daisy Duggan’s nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare EMS Adelaide (Mermus R x Loch Cruise), who was bred by Willie McElhinney.
On Wednesday, Morgan won the six-year-old two-phase with the Toulon-sired mare Chedington Tallulah, as well as finishing sixth aboard Chacera.
Anthony Condon won Thursday’s 1.35m Table A with Mary Kehoe’s eight-year-old mare Creevyquinn Pearl. By VDL Cardento, she was bred by Stephen and Eilish Reilly out of the VDL Corland mare Fragonda, and produced in Ireland by Jason Higgins before joining Condon’s British stable in 2021.
They were fastest of 36 clear rounds in 66.58 to win ahead of Frenchman Olivier Perreau. Adam Morgan finished sixth with the former young horse world champion RC Rockwell (Kannan x Guidam), bred by Ronan Byrne.
On the same day, Condon won the seven-year-olds with the Ruth Loney-bred Bellevue Celestial (Luidam x Limmerick). Jonathan Gordon finished ninth with the Aidan Carroll-bred gelding CBI Karhari (Goodluck VDL x Kroongraaf) who was sold at the end of 2021 after being well produced in Ireland by Shane Goggins.
Co Down’s Dermott Lennon continued his winning ways and landed Saturday’s four-star 1.30m two-phase with his own eight-year-old gelding Anthem In My Heart. Lennon was then runner-up in the 1.45m aboard the Gerry Marron and Luc Henry-bred L’Esprit Hero Z (Lexicon x For Pleasure).
Their clear in 27.45 seconds was just fractions slower than Japanese winner Taizo Sugitani with Famous (0/ 27.35). Lauren Devine finished in sixth place with her own and Geneviève Fabry Cancre’s 11-year-old mare Baby Boom O’Moulin (0/ 28.88). The Kay Quirke-bred DSH Cluen Castle (Ars Vivendi x Harlequin du Carel) placed fourth under Portugal’s João Pedro Gomes.
Devine scored a win of her own in the one-star division, guiding the 13-year-old mare Cassandra VL Z to victory in Sunday’s 1.35m jump-off. The pair had finished third in Friday’s 1.30m.
Lucinda Roche scored a win, second and third places last week with Peter Roche’s Izar LB. the win came in Sunday’s four-star 1.30m two-phase when she galloped to victory in 25.06 seconds, just beating Kilkenny’s Seamus Hughes Kennedy into second place with Castlefield Kamira (0/ 25.58).
Roche and Izar LB were second on Thursday and third in Friday’s 1.30m behind runner-up Anthony Condon with SFS Mirage. In fourth was Britain’s Sameh El Dahan with the Thomas Hughes-bred ISH mare WKD Spice (Heritage Fortunas x Clover Echo).
After securing her first international win on horse the previous week, Alex Finney was back in the winners enclosure once again with Duco after taking victory in Friday’s 1.30m Table A.
Cameron Hanley was best of the Irish in Sunday’s four-star 1.50m Grand Prix. He finished in eighth place with the Cian O’Connor-bred ESI Toulouse (SIEC Livello x Quasimodo vd Molendreef) after picking up a time fault in the first round.
Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat landed victory with the 11-year-old gelding Albfuehren’s Maddox to earn the top prize of €23,800.