THE Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team have posted a third-place finish in the opening regional qualifier of the Longines EEF Nations Cup in Kronenberg, The Netherlands.

While a positive result from a 13-team competition, which was won in a jump-off against Canada by the hosts, there was a tinge of disappointment around it from an Irish perspective, given that Michael Blake’s unit had posted four clears in the first round.

This is despite the fact that Ireland were the highest finishing team in their region, Region West, and thus earned the maximum 100 points, meaning that they are very close to securing a semi-final berth.

However, only Jessica Burke, on the Liam Nicholas owned and bred Irish Sport Horse, Express Trend, was able to record a double clear after that magnificent opening phase. The son of Future Trend answered every call from his Galway pilot, getting around without a blemish.

In contrast, Dutch trio Michael Greeve, Henk Frederiks and Mathijs van Asten, and Kara Chad, Elizabeth Bates and Lea Rucker from Canada, all managed to pull off double clears.

Greeve sent the locals home delirious, when he and Denver recorded a third straight clear in a quick time of 32.05 in the decisive jump-off. That put pressure on Canadian Kyle Timm on Casino Calvin and it told, with one error ensuring triumph for The Netherlands.

The Irish were fourth of the 13 teams into the arena, which didn’t give pathfinder Richard Howley much by the way of information when he went into the ring on the nine-year-old Zodiak du Buisson Z, but he had no concerns with the grey, who is owned by HK Horses.

Burke and Express Trend followed up in similar style and Mayo man, Michael G Duffy and Clitschko 17 (owned by Carl Hanley Sporthorses, Niall Talbot and Duffy himself) also had a very impressive clear round.

Daniel Coyle, the highest ranked athlete taking part at number 11 in the Longines rankings, brought the curtain down on those first round proceedings with another clear on Incredible, the 11-year-old owned by the Derry man, in partnership with Ariel Grange.

Howley, Duffy and Coyle all recorded solid second rounds, but each ended on four faults, to leave Ireland on a final tally of eight. They did just enough to hold off a rallying Spain, as well as USA, France and Belgium for third on a better aggregate time.

Strong team

“Third is never a bad result, but I thought we would have done a little better in the second round,” said Blake afterwards. “We had a very strong team and things didn’t just stack up for us. Richard nudged the first fence and we were under pressure a bit from there. Jessica did a fantastic job, I thought.

“Michael’s horse is a quality horse, but is just back from injury. He hasn’t been in the ring for over a year, so that might have been a factor.

“In the end, I made Daniel aware that he needed to be quick in under 77 seconds and, though he had one down, he made sure he got the time and we were able to edge third as a result.

“I must congratulate The Netherlands and Canada, who did a great job. We came up a little bit short, but we still got a podium finish and it was important to get that and to finish top of the teams in our region. That puts us in a very strong position with regards to qualifying for the semi-finals.

“It’s not been a bad year so far. We’ve two big wins, a second and a third and while most countries would take that, we’ll keep striving to get better.”

The second qualifying event for Region West takes place in Roeser in Luxembourg on June 7th, with the semi-final in Deauville a fortnight later and the final in Warsaw on September 6th.

Other classes

Richard Howley was undoubtedly in buoyant form heading into the Nations Cup, after recording a three-star 1.45m class victory earlier in the day on Petitfour Vd Wareslage, who is owned jointly by HK Horses, Sarah Borthwick and renowned jockey Oisín Murphy.

The Enniscrone native and his nine-year-old partner showed plenty of promise with a clear round in a time of 59.19 that took the spoils. Nuno Tiago Gomes (POR) was runner-up on board Chaccora’s Stakko PS, with Bas van der Aa (NED) third on Shanroe Barney.

Cortown man Alexander Butler also made the podium at Kronenberg, when he and Jurry Bleu K were third in the three-star Ashford Farms 1.55m class on Sunday at the event hosted at Peelbergen Equestrian centre.

The Irish combination were one of 10 to navigate the track without a problem first time around and proved very competitive in the jump-off, bagging third with a clear in 38.37.

Petronella Andersson (SWE) was victorious in this class on Odina Van Klapscheut, with Canadian Elizabeth Bates runner-up on Heartbeat W.