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MICHAEL Blake’s Irish team finished second in the third leg of the Longines FEI Nations Cup of Rotterdam this evening (Friday) with the competition coming down to an exciting battle between Ireland and The Netherlands, who won for the third year in-a-row.
Michael Duffy, Trevor Breen, Cian O’Connor and Daniel Coyle finished just behind the home nation of The Netherlands with four clear rounds to put 80 points on the board in the European Division one standings.
Blake selected an experienced team and pathfinder Michael Duffy from Galway was absolutely foot- perfect with the 14-year-old grey mare Cinca (Casall x Carthago), owned by Hibernian Sport Horses Ltd.
West Sussex-based Tipperary rider Trevor Breen was next to go with his mother-in-law Heather Black’s 11-year-old home-bred gelding Highland President (Clinton x Kannan). The pair knocked the bogey fence – the vertical at fence nine after the triple combination – and also lowered the first part of the double at fence 11.
Cian O’Connor was third to go with Nicole Walker’s inexperienced nine-year-old mare Eve d’Ouilly (Qlassic Bois Margot x Poor Boy) and she looked every inch a star for the future when only faulting at fence nine.
Daniel Coyle was in the anchor man position with Ariel Grange’s 12-year-old grey stallion Gisborne VDL (VDL Zirocco Blue x Goodtimes). He produced a perfect clear to leave Ireland on four faults at the half-way stage, just one fault ahead of the Dutch.
Ireland produced more clear second time out but the Dutch added only one time penalty to sneak it in the end. Duffy produced one of just two double clears; the other delivered by Harrie Smolders with Monaco N.O.P.
Breen faulted at the second part of the double for four faults, before Cian O’Connor produced a brilliant clear which looked like it would nearly be enough to win.
However, the home nation of Jur Vrieling, Leopold van Asten, Maikel van der Vleuten and Smolders never gave up. Second last to go, Smolders had to jump a clear to keep the team’s hopes alive, and he did so, piling the pressure on Coyle.
With just two faults separating them, Coyle had to jump clear or have no more than one time fault to win. The combination unfortunately faulted early in the course to drop Ireland to eight faults and hand the win to the Dutch on six faults.
Germany finished third on 24 faults, ahead of France on the same score and Italy on 36.
EEF Nations Cup Semi-Final
In the low scoring Longines EEF Nations Cup Semi-Final in Deauville, France, Ireland finished in sixth place on a score of eight faults after a fantastic second round.
They faced an uphill battle after the opening round when Jason Foley was the only Irish rider to jump clear riding Oscar v/h Hulstenhof, owned by Bruntwood Stables Bvba and Karel Cox Horses BV.
Matt Garrigan (Quantum Robin V), Jenny Rankin (Imar) and Conor Drain (Imagine) were all unlucky to each have one fence down, leaving Ireland on a team score of eight at the half way stage when Spain, Sweden, France and Portugal were all out in front on zero penalties.
However, a superb second round, with clears from Garrigan, Rankin and Drain, Ireland added nothing to their score, however with only five qualifying spaces for up for grabs, Ireland narrowly missed out on progressing to the Longines EEF Final finishing in sixth place.
Speaking afterwards, Vard said: “We’re all just so disappointed, unfortunately the damage was done in the first round and luck wasn’t on our side. We knew coming out here that we had the ability to qualify, things just didn’t go our way and that’s sport sometimes but it’s tough on the riders.
“We showed great grit and determination to come out and have a team score of zero in the second round. Although this moved us up the leader board it wasn’t quite enough. The riders made a great comeback and I’m very proud of them for that.
“This is called a development league and that’s exactly what we are doing, we are developing, we have great depth in our squad now and we will continue to build and develop and will come back stronger from this.”
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