IRELAND’s hope of winning a first ever Longines FEI World Cup title hangs in the balance after the Friday’s second round in Leipzig, Germany.

Co Down’s Conor Swail got off to the perfect start on Thursday with a brilliant clear round to sit in third place with Mannon Farm and Sandy Lupton’s 15-year-old gelding Count Me In (Count Grannus x Sherlock Holmes).

An unlucky pole down in Friday’s second round leaves them in joint sixth place on seven penalties heading into tomorrow’s (Sunday) grand finale. Competing at his seventh World Cup Final, Denis Lynch, riding Onyx Consulting’s 15-year-old stallion Cristello (Numero Uno x Voltaire), was unfortunate to pick up four faults in both the first and second round of the competition and he sits in 14th place.

McLain Ward won Friday’s second round with Contagious to rocket to the top of the overall standings and he is now the one to beat when he starts with zero penalties on Sunday, but less than two fences seperate the top nine so it is all to play for.

For Swail, it is a first World Cup Final although he has qualified a number of times “but never felt I had the horse to do it to be honest”.

Explaining how he came to find Count Me In, Swail commented: “A Canadian friend told me about Count Me In coming up for sale. He was already 14 years old and he had been ridden for seven or eight years by Beth Underhill. He had been successful with her but not at this top level. I knew the horse very well and I always thought he was a nice horse.

“Meanwhile, I had already bought one from Barry (O’Connor) - a nice five-year-old that is now seven and looks very promising - together with a friend of my brother Marcus. Connell Murray went to school with Marcus and lived just down the road from us in Darragh Cross - he’s a partner in the telecoms company KN Networks. He decided he’d like to buy another really good one and asked how much that would cost.

“I said anything from €500,000 to €1.5 million and he said okay. We do everything 50/50 so Connell and I are both half-owners. Our horse ownership together goes under the banner of Mannon Farm and the lady who owned him originally kept a small share because she had the horse a long time and loves him dearly.

“When I got the horse last May, he was low in confidence for the first few months and I wasn’t sure I could get him back. He wasn’t in a great place mentally, but once I got him going he never took a step backwards. He’s a lovely horse and never spooky.

“It’s not a surprise to me to be here at the World Cup Final. The horse is fit and healthy and he’s been going really well. We flew him last Tuesday so he’s been hacking around and quite happy in himself, and was fresh and ready for the first class yesterday.”

Marcus, who is also the Team Ireland vet, and Connell were due to arrive in Leipzig for the second round. “Connell and I have been good friends, and it’s great that he’s been able to contribute to me buying a few horses - he’s really enjoying it but he also enjoys the fact that he can help a local person whom he knows. So it’s very much a Darragh Cross story,” Swail added.