SEAMUS Hughes Kennedy added two gold medals to the cabinet of his Co Kilkenny home this week. The newly crowned Young Rider European Champion was previously fifth man for the pony gold medal-winning team in 2017, and he won the seven-year-old World Breeding Championships at Lanaken in 2019.

“These are really the first two gold medals though because I was fifth man in the ponies and it was before they brought in the medal rule, and 2019 in Lanaken was the first year they didn’t give out medals,” Hughes Kennedy said on Tuesday after arriving home from Italy.

His year got off to a fabulous start with two-star Grand Prix victories in Balmoral and at Sentower Park in Belgium aboard the now sold ESI Ali (ISH), so he took the eight-year-old gelding ESI Rocky (Stakkato Gold x For Pleasure), bred by his mother Clare’s first cousin Andrew Hughes at Ennisnag Stud, to these championships after a third place finish in the two-star Grand Prix of Mullingar.

The pair started with a clear round in the opening speed class, placing 16th with a bit to do to get to the gold medal. He was in the medals going into the individual final and another clear saw him in the gold medal position before the very final round, ahead of compatriots Rhys Williams (Playboy JT Z) and Niamh McEvoy (Templepatrick Welcome Limmerick).

Third last to go, McEvoy finished with eight faults to drop to seventh, before Williams had the same score to finish sixth. When entering the arena as last to go, Hughes Kennedy had one fence in hand over Sweden’s Beata Hermelin but he didn’t know that, and when a part of the combination hit the ground, he thought he had lost the gold. On crossing the finishing line, it took him a second to realise he was the new champion. The Netherlands’ Skye Morssinkhof finished with the bronze medal.

Telling The Irish Field about the week, Hughes Kennedy said: “I did a comfortable round on the first day and stayed within two faults of the leaders. I knew with the Young Riders that it’s a lot more about endurance and keeping everything together for the week, so I knew I would be in touch as the week went on.

“Then it was just about getting it done for Ireland to win the team gold. There was probably more pressure for the teams than individuals. We were all so close, I had three cousins on the junior team, and then there were the set of brothers – the Wachmans and Williams. It was a very tight knit team.”

Going in to jump for gold, he didn’t realise he had a fence in hand. “I actually didn’t know I could have one down. I thought I lost the gold but I knew that there was still at least a bronze for the taking once I just kept it together. It took me a second after when I looked up at the screen, and then I heard my dad [Melvyn] let out the roar and I knew!” he said.

ESI Rocky has had a quick step up to international level this year. “He was bred by my mother’s first cousin, Andrew Hughes, just 2km down the road from us, we’ve always had a few horses together. We’ve had him since he was two, he was broken at our yard as a three-year-old and he is still a relatively green horse.

“His first ranking class was only in Mullingar last month; his first 1.45m was the week before in Sentower and his first 1.40m this year was before that in Lummen. It has all come together rather quickly for him. We always knew he had all the jump, we have had to manage his head and get him to work with us… we have big hopes for the horse going into the future.”

Adding to the Hughes/Brennan family affair in Gorla Minore was Seamus’ first cousin, team vet Seamus McSorley. “He was a big help, as was my other first cousin Hugh McKeown who comes to all the shows with me. Ger O’Neill was out giving me a hand too, he had to go home for one day to deliver a best man’s speech but I was very glad he came back out for the final. We have done a lot together.”