Britain win Spanish Nations Cup

MICHAEL Blake’s Irish show jumping team finished sixth of 20 teams in Friday’s three-star Nations Cup at Vejer De La Frontera in Spain, where the stand-out Irish performance came from Mikey Pender and the Irish Sport Horse HHS Calais (ISH) who jumped a brilliant double clear.

Waterford’s Anthony Condon was first of the Irish to jump with Pat Hales’ SFS Vincomte and they looked to be heading for a clear round before the very last fence fell and they also picked up a time fault for a five-fault score. Pender then jumped clear with Bravo Hughes’ HHS Calais (ISH), before young rider Max Wachman finished with eight faults aboard his new mount, Berlux Z, owned by Coolmore Showjumping.

Waterford army rider Commandant Geoff Curran was the anchor rider with the Minister for Defence’s Glengarra Wood (ISH) and finished with one fence down to leave Ireland on a first round total of nine faults and safely among the top eight teams who made it into the second round.

Condon and SFS Vincomte finished with one time fault as round two got underway before Pender completed his excellent double clear with HHS Calais (ISH). Max Wachman and Berlux Z were also impressive second time out finishing with just one fence down before Commandant Curran and Glengarra Wood (ISH) also finished with just four faults.

That left Ireland on a final score of 14 faults in sixth place while the British team of Joseph Clayton (Gentleman VH Veldhof), Alex Thompson (Cathalina S), Karl Robins (Equine America G Camille HBF) and Matthew Sampson (Geneve R) took the winners’ prize on just two time faults.

Brazil took second place on a final score of four faults, while Switzerland and Sweden shared third place with nine faults a piece.