IRELAND’s Conor Swail and Mark McAuley ended week 10 at the Winter Equestrian Festival on the podium of the four-star $216,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix where the victory went to USA Olympic medallist Laura Kraut aboard Confu.

Forty-five entries from 14 nations contested Michel Vaillancourt’s 1.55m course. His challenge for the riders included two double combinations, a triple combination, and a triple-bar early on at fence three. A total of 10 combinations managed to navigate it without fault to make it through to an exciting jump-off.

USA’s Ashley Vogel led the charge but would not see the top of the podium as she accrued four faults. Sweden’s Petronella Andersson was the first to put in a successful double-clear, but Co Louth’s Mark McAuley was quick to up the ante with Jasco VD Bisschop, posting a clear in 37.55 seconds to shoot to the top of the leaderboard.

The night looked to be in the bag for the Irish as McAuley sat in second and Conor Swail put in a blazing round (37.10) as the second last to go into the lead with Vital Chance De La Roque, but Kraut and Confu clearly had other plans as the last to go in the jump-off.

The duo proved they are never a pair that should be counted out. Kraut and the 15-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Contact Me x Cambridge 8) exploded into action, finishing with a final time of 36.44 seconds.

Derry’s Daniel Coyle finished in ninth place with Farona. The pair posted the fastest round against the clock (36.35) but picked up four faults.

Special win

“My plan was just to go at his pace and hopefully let him be double clear. The turn to the wall and the rollback to the oxer felt incredibly fast to me. I was then lucky to get a good jump on the second to last fence, and then also lucky to keep the final fence up. He knew exactly what to do,” commented Kraut after her win.

The win was extra special for both Kraut and the Horseware Ireland team. Horseware Ireland has been a long-time supporting partner of Kraut, and the win seemed almost fated after the two appeared in a promotional item for the company earlier in the week, produced by Co Louth social media guru Emma McCabe’s Epic Management.

The event was the first Grand Prix for Confu since November of 2021 in Europe. She shared that the gelding suffered from a serious virus at the end of 2021, and his future had been extremely unclear.

“The win tonight means everything,” emphasised Kraut. “A few months ago, we were crying because we weren’t sure he was going to make it. It means the world to have him win, and to win on Horseware week, I don’t think we could have scripted it any better. I’m so thankful to have had their support for many years, and it feels like winning this class was meant to be.”

Swail was pleased to take second place with his own 13-year-old Selle Français gelding Vital Chance De La Roque (Diamant De Semilly x Rivage Du Poncel) after flying over the final fence in 37.10 seconds to earn $43,200.

“I’m very pleased with how tonight went, and I think we are a great partnership,” stated Swail. “He’s quite a buzzy little chap; he is quite aggressive, but he uses it to his advantage because he is so small. He is small and mighty.”

McAuley and SNC McAuley Equestrian’s 13-year-old BWP gelding Jasco VD Bisschop (Dulf Van Den Bisschop x Krunch De Breve) were mere milliseconds behind Swail for a finishing time of 37.55 seconds. The pair were previously second in the four-star Grand Prix during week three of WEF. They collected a cheque for $32,400.

“He hasn’t jumped much under the lights, but I think this circuit has been great for him,” said McAuley. “It felt almost easy to ride him this evening compared to when we competed in the evening on week three.

“No matter what I did as third to go tonight, I was always going to leave the door open with a field of competitors like these behind me. In the end, maybe I should have taken some stupid risks and I would’ve won but Laura deserved her win tonight and I am very happy for her.”

It was the second good result of the week for McAuley and Jasco as they earlier finished second in the WEF Challenge when producing one of just two clear rounds behind American winner Nick Dello Joio and Cornet’s Cambridge. Jordan Coyle finished third with Celtic Park LLC’s Centriko Volo when he had the fastest time but finished with four faults.