MIKEY Pender completed an international hat trick, which would see him named leading international rider of the show, when he won the crowd-favourite Land Rover Puissance class on Saturday night in front of a packed Dublin crowd.

Riding Paul Van Den Bosch’s 15-year-old gelding Hearton du Bois Halleux, 22-year-old Pender was the only one to clear the wall in the final round when it stood at 2.20m to win the class outright, from the five that made it through.

“He’s been a fantastic horse for me,” Pender told The Irish Field. “He won the Puissance in Dublin a few years ago, he’s won in Olympia, he’s won in Liverpool, and he also won the Hickstead Derby.

“I knew he was capable of jumping the 2.20m but he hasn’t done a lot with Covid so he was in the field. He had quite a long break. But he was in brilliant form and fit and ready to go so I was hopeful. It was a great class. There were a lot of good horses in it. He will have a break now and then we will make a plan for him.”

Just five of the 11 combinations that took on the ‘big wall’ made it into the last round to attempt to jump 2.20m.

They included Pender, Daniel Coyle (Just Happy Hero Z), Commandant Geoff Curran (Bishops Quarter), Dermott Lennon (Ardragh Mountain Dew) and Jordan Coyle (Eristov).

Both Daniel Coyle and Curran’s mounts took on the wall, and both collected four faults. Meanwhile, the mounts of Lennon and Jordan Coyle both decided that four rounds was enough and refused to take it on, subsequently retiring.

This meant a win for Pender. Equal second place for Daniel Coyle and Curran, and equal third for Lennon and Jordan Coyle.