RICHARD Howley returned from injury with a bang recently and flanked his form last weekend when winning a three-star 1.45m in Oliva, Spain.

The Yorkshire-based Sligo man raced to victory in Friday’s 1.45m two-phase which had a huge startlist of 95 combinations. Some 17 of those produced double clears and Howley was the fastest by over two seconds with Arlo de Blondel.

Howley and Sarah Borthwick’s 11-year-old gelding broke the beam in 28.65 seconds to win €6,375 and beat France’s Gilles Willemann into second place in a time of 30.79 with Chopin d’Hyrencourt. Brazil’s Thiago Ribas da Costa finished third with Kassandra van’t Heike (0/0 31.25).

Howley’s other result came on the same day, in the three-star 1.35m, where he guided Victor to fourth place when clear in 61.92 seconds. Victory went to Czech Republic’s Sara Vingralkova and Damocles From Second Life Z (0/ 58.21).

Dylan Ward was in action in the one-star division and he finished third in Friday’s 1.25m Table C Speed and Handiness with Call Me Liberte. Britain’s Oliver Fletcher took first and second place with Jetlag and Hello M’Lord.