VOICES hoarse from cheering are only just returning to normal as the FEI WBFSH World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken is over. Ireland came home with a glorious two world championship titles, and a bronze medal, maintaining their confident dominance on the world stage.
The sun was blazing over the Zangersheide Stud arenas for the qualifying rounds and the wins began for Ireland with the Five-Year-Old consolation final victory for Niamh McEvoy and the Ballypatrick-bred and owned mare, BP Lucky Clover (ISH).
The quality pair should perhaps have made the main final, both are certainly capable, but despite that initial disappointment, victory remained sweet for the Mylord Carthago (SF) mare who is daughter of Ballypatrick poster girl Arraghbeg Clover (ISH), winner of the Five-Year-Old gold medal in 2013 with Greg Broderick. McEvoy and BP Lucky Clover (ISH) stole the title just .04 of a second ahead of silver-placed British rider Thomas Pritchard and Princess SW (AES) in a winning time of 59.22 seconds.
There were no Irish-bred horses in the jump-off of Sunday’s Five-Year-Old final, but Ireland was represented beautifully by four talented riders in Sophie Richards with Top Gun VD Bisschop (BWP), Jason Foley with both Castlefield Future (OS) and Ti Amore van de Doornhaag (BWP), Michael Duffy with Jericho De Hus (SF) and Niamh McEvoy with her show-stealing round on the newly-acquired athletic Orange De Baugy (KWPN), owned by GBBS International Ltd.
The game pair flew the course in high-stakes unison to see off 19 jump-off competitors. Their foot-perfect win was a sporting sight to behold for those of us ringside.
Jaw-dropping
The winning intention was never in doubt as McEvoy set off at a dominating speed, silencing the crowd as she sealed the deal in a jaw-dropping 36.15 seconds, demolishing the leading time of 43.13 set by Patrick McEntee and Amboise du Mury Marais Z (ZANG) for Azerbaijan. Silver went to Italy’s Diego Pagano with Zuly (MASAF) in a time of 38.44 and Dutch rider Lotte Teuns took the bronze medal with Jolidiams Des Tocrias (SF) in a time of 39.04.
“She’s such a special mare. I knew from the first time I sat on her. She’s just unbelievable. She’s got so much power, so much blood, her feeling is just unbelievable,” McEvoy told The Irish Field of Orange De Baugy. “She’s so brave and careful. I knew before I went in that I was going to go very quick because of how careful she is, but obviously you never know how that is going to work out.
“We didn’t get the horse too long ago at Ballypatrick, we only have her three weeks or a month. After this we’ll give her a nice break and then hopefully next year we’ll be up and running. We’ll plan for the long game. I think she has a massive future, so definitely one we’re going to mind.”
Irish hopes were dashed for the Six-Year-Old final as Germany’s Katrin Eckermann secured the gold medal for the second year in a row with Sascinora NRW (WESTF). Co Kilkenny’s Vincent Byrne and the impressive Gone Girl VB, owned by LMG Enterprises, was the highest placing Irish combination jumping double clear in a time of 38.98 to finish eighth.
Fighter
In the Seven-Year-Old final, Mikey Pender and the Hughes Horse Stud-bred HHS Mercedes (Can Ya Makan x Couletto), gave what can only be described as a masterclass on how a brave horse and rider combination can dash the hopes of any competition to win gold and Pender’s seventh medal at the venue.
Mikey Pender and HHS Mercedes after winning gold at the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Breeding Championship For Young Horses \ EquusPix photography
Discussing his winning mount, Pender told The Irish Field: “The course for the first round was difficult, it’s always a difficult course here for seven-year-olds, it’s like a big Grand Prix. The moment she needed to be a fighter, she got stuck in.
“Hopefully it encourages a few people to breed and we can see those horses here in the future. I’m very motivated about young horses, Lanaken is always a very interesting show for me to come to. We’re very, very lucky to have a horse good enough to be able to win and be such a genuine horse that I can ride her after not doing very much with her [Molly Hughes Bravo is her usual rider] and she responds to me and gives everything.”
Out of only the seven to qualify for the jump-off, a focused Michael Duffy and Ballypatrick-bred BP Royalty (Comme Il Faut x OBOS Quality) clinched bronze for Ireland too.
“I never rode him before Tuesday,” Duffy told the busy press conference. “I was lucky enough to be able to buy 50% of the horse to take him to the next level, Greg Broderick always believed in the horse, he said he was one of the best he ever had.
“The standard of riders in Ireland is so high,” Duffy continued. “I remember I came here to Lanaken for the first time, I think 12 or 13 years ago, and if we got one medal every five years, they’d still be talking about it at home, but now the standard has gone so high. You can see the pedigrees of all the Irish horses that are bred now and there are two of them on the podium.”
McEvoy, Pender and Duffy all offered up performances that had international hearts pounding and the Irish in the crowd roaring them home. Big picture thinking from the Irish camps at Lanaken is proving consistently that winning formulas are built on the symbiotic nurturing of our Irish horses and our Irish riders, with some smart business thrown in to the mix as well.
Indictor
Alison Corbally, Director General of the Irish Horse Board, extended her congratulations to the winning connections, commenting: “Sincere congratulations to Mikey, Marion and all the HHS family and to Niamh, Greg and all the Ballypatrick team and to Michael Duffy with BP Royalty on bringing home the three medals from the World Young Horse Championships.
“This success in the seven-year-old classes is a real indicator of how we have developed over the years – the strength in depth of Irish-bred horses that Ireland has available to win at this level is tremendous and a testament to the breeders of Ireland.
“On the same day we won two gold and one bronze young horse medal at the Young Horse Championships, Padraig McCarthy won the CCI-S 4* for eight- and nine-year-old event horses at Blenheim Place with his home-bred MGH Zabalone and CFS James Kann Cruz won the $340k American Gold Cup in the USA. Irish-bred and produced top horses winning around the globe on the one day.
“The tremendous success of the Irish-bred and produced horses at Lanaken resulted in ever more enquires to the Irish Horse Board team at the event for quality Irish performance horses during the show – I am confident that some will lead to significant sales abroad. The demand for Irish horses is very strong currently when they are broken and well produced and showing potential for sporting or high-class leisure purposes.
“On behalf of the Irish Horse Board, I would like to congratulate in addition to the medal winners, all those that travelled to Lanaken and especially all those combinations that qualified for the finals. The margins are very small at these Championships and therefore congratulations are due to all the breeders, owners and riders involved in producing the Irish horses in the finals – congratulations all!” Corbally added.