SHOW jumping continued at Club Hipico La Silla in Monterrey, Mexico last week, with two-star and five-star classes being held. Ireland had a few representatives at the show, who secured a number of top 10 placings and took home their share of the generous prize fund on offer.
The best result was in the five-star 1.60m Grand Prix on Sunday, which saw a fifth-place finish for Shane Sweetnam on RR Combella. Of the 38 combinations who went to post, the top 12 went forward to the jump-off, where only five jumped clear within the time allowed.
Sweetnam’s time of 42.83 secured fifth place and a very nice $425,600 prize pot. It was a home win for Mexico’s Andres Azcarraga on Contendros 2 in a very fast 40.20 for the $1,520,000 top prize.
Andrew Bourns secured a top 10 finish in the five-star 1.50m Ranking class at Monterrey last Friday, when placing 10th with Tranquility Bay. From the 70 starters, just nine jumped clear in the first round, with Bourns incurring two time-penalties for finishing just outside the time allowed. The class and its $520,000 first prize was won by Italy’s Emanuele Camilli on Chacco’s Girlstar with a clear jump-off round in 37.20 seconds. Bourns took home a tidy $52,000 for his 10th place finish.
Richard Howley and Nera D Champs FT finished third in the Seven-year-old Young Horse 1.35m Special Two-phase class, from a start list of 36. Howley’s time of 40.72 was just over a second behind the Mexican winner, Juan Carlos Alvarez Del Castillo B on Puertas Happiness (39.41).
Saturday started off with a five-star 1.45m Ranking class, in which Howley placed 10th with Mansini Ltd. The pair were among 15 of the 44 starters to jump clear in round one, with just 10 of those proceeding to the jump-off. Luck wasn’t on Howley’s side second time out and he and his mount were eliminated, but still took home $14,375 for their efforts.