THE latest leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour was held in London last weekend, with Irish riders taking home some of the coveted ribbons.
The best of the Irish results came from Wexford’s Harry Allen, who won the five-star 1.45m Speed class and the Lugano Diamonds Trophy with Ballywalter Stables’ Lukaku vd Bisschop, clocking a fast time of 60.64 seconds.
There were 29 starters in the class, with 13 managing to jump clear rounds and the top three finishing within a mere 0.3 seconds of each other.
Germany’s David Will was Allen’s closest challenger, finishing in a time of 60.81 with Zaccorado Blue, closely followed by Sweden’s Angelica Augustsson Zanotelli riding Dyrka Du Carry (60.94).
Meanwhile, Sligo’s Richard Howley and Mansini Ltd took a podium place when third out of 42 starters in the five-star 1.55m Round 1 of the Global Champions League on Saturday, jumping clear in a time of 61.67 seconds.
The class was won by an on-form David Will (GER) on Zaccorado Blue (60.42), and with Harry Charles (GBR) on Chawton taking second place (61.43).
On Sunday, Howley finished seventh in the five-star Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of London on board Zodiak Du Buisson Z. From the 38 starters in, Howley was among just seven combinations who jumped clear in the first round to make it through to the jump-off.
Unfortunately, he incurred 12 faults second time out, which left him in seventh place. Just four combinations jumped double clear, with the fastest of those being Britain’s Harry Charles on Sherlock, who managed to leave all the fences standing in a time of 36.68 seconds.
Ireland’s Aisling Byrne rode Celeste SPB Z into second place in Saturday’s two-star 1.15m class. She followed this up with a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s 1.15m jump-off class, where she jumped clear in a jump-off time of 33.82. Byrne also claimed third place in the two-star 1.30m jump-off class riding Cnoc Rua Chinook, jumping clear in a jump-off time of 36.43 seconds.