JORDAN Coyle capped the 2021 Major League Show Jumping season with a CSI5* Grand Prix win aboard Ariso, and he wasted no time returning to the top of the podium in 2022 at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, Canada when there were four Irish riders in the top seven.

Coyle and Ariso stormed to a win in five-star Grand Prix at Thunderbird Show Park last Sunday from a 10-horse jump-off that included some of the best riders in the world. Early to go against the clock with the 11-year-old Casall ASK gelding, he posted a blistering round in 45.89 seconds and had to wait and see if it would be good enough to hold out.

In the end, it was, with Egypt’s Nayel Nassar coming closest to his time in 46.56 with Igor van de Wittemoere to finish runner-up. Jordan’s brother Daniel took third place with Legacy in 46.81, while Limerick’s Paul O’Shea finished just off the podium in fourth when picking up four faults with Chancelloress (0/4 46.98).

Shane Sweetnam also made it through to the jump-off with the former Francis Connors-ridden nine-year-old ISH James Kann Cruz (Kannan x Cruising), who was bred by Patrick Connolly. He picked up four faults in 50.50. Jordan Coyle earned just under €40,000 for victory.

Speaking afterwards, he said: “The strategy was to go as fast as possible because there were a lot of good ones coming after me. Nayel [Nassar] on that horse is very fast, Kent [Farrington;] is one of the best in the world, and I suppose Daniel [Coyle] is not bad also. I was early to go and I felt if I could go as fast as I could, it would make it hard for everyone else and lucky enough it worked out.

“I would say if I did it a hundred times, it probably wouldn’t have happened like that again. But it happened so it was pretty hard to beat. Jump one to two was kind of a strange track.

“I was going for the inside but then I caught a flier to the first and felt like I was going pretty fast to the second jump, and it all worked out. For me, Major League is the priority, so everything else kind of works around that.”

Double for Swail

Conor Swail won two five-star classes aboard a relatively new mount, the Mannon Farm-owned nine-year-old stallion Nadal Hero & DB. They won Friday’s 1.45m Table A with the fastest of six clears in 65.58, beating Co Meath’s Nicky Galligan into second place aboard Hermione de l’Hodez. Swail also finished sixth with his World Cup mount Count Me In.

The Co Down show jumper then won Sunday’s’s 1.50m and a healthy €13,000, again with Nadal Hero & DB, when best of six double clears in 45.85. Daniel Coyle was the runner-up with Oak Grove’s Carlyle in 49.20.

Daniel Coyle won a double of two-star classes at the venue with Ariel Grange’s Ivory TCS. The first victory came in Friday’s 1.45m Table A when he beat his brother Jordan into second place with a clear in 65.92 seconds. Jordan finished runner-up with Costa Diam, ahead of Paul O’Shea in third with Sexy Beast (0/ 71.69).

Galway’s Andrew Bourns finished fifth with the Noel Ruane-bred nine-year-old Castle OJ (Sligo Candy Boy x High Roller) in 73.62 seconds.

Daniel and Ivory TCS then went on to win Sunday’s two-star Grand Prix, one of just two clears in the five-horse jump-off. USA’s Kent Farrington finished second with Landon.