IRISH riders dominated the podium in Sunday’s two-star 1.45m Grand Prix at Lier in Belgium, when Wexford’s Harry Allen on Calculatus and Clare’s Eoin McMahon on Cornest took second and third places respectively. The pair were only beaten by Belgian rider Gilles Thomas on Qalista DN, whose double clear in a jump-off time of 39.83 seconds could not be bettered.

Just 21 of the 72 starters jumped clear in the first round, with 20 of them progressing to the jump-off. The track caught many of them out second time round and only seven kept a clean sheet. Allen’s time of 40.43 was less than a second behind Thomas to secure second place, while McMahon clocked 41.16 for third.

Show jumping in Lier, Belgium began on Thursday, January 16th, when McMahon got the ball rolling for the Irish contingent, with a sixth place from 67 starters in the two-star 1.40m class on board Cayadina, when they jumped clear in a time of 59.28 seconds.

The pair then proceeded to place third in Friday’s 1.45m LR class. From a large start list of 87, just 12 combinations jumped clear in round one for their chance to jump again. All of them managed to keep the fences standing second time out, with time proving crucial in the placings – in fact, the top three finished within 0.2 seconds of each other, with McMahon’s time of 31.47 seconds only 0.1 seconds behind runner-up Sanne Thijssen (NED) on Cum Laude (31.37), who in turn was just 0.1 seconds behind winner Hendrik-Jan Schuttert (NED) on High Energie Vk Z (31.27).

Saturday saw Harry Allen on Daredevil Z take seventh place in the one-star young horse seven and eight-year-old 1.30m/1.35m two-phase class, jumping double clear in a phase two time of 28.33. Anthony Wellens (BEL) on Reaninn Van T Heyveld won in time of 26.56.