BLENHEIM Palace International Horse Trials proved a happy hunting ground for Tipperary’s Padraig McCarthy last week, as he won the CCI-S 4* for eight and nine-year-olds on board the home-bred eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse, MGH Zabaione (Zavall Vdl x Viancara VDL x Acobat II), owned by Peter Cattell and Diane Brunsden. McCarthy, who is based in Devon, is the first Irish athlete to ever win the class.

It was nail-bitingly close at the top – the top three finished within 0.80 of each other – the winner finished on 36.10, with fellow Irish rider Georgie Goss on Kojak following just a fraction behind on 36.50. There was another Irish connection in third place, when the eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse, Cooley Mosstown [was Mosstown CH] (Celtic Hero B Z x Rabaila x Riverman), bred by David Harris, was ridden by Caroline Harris (GBR) to score 36.90.

The winning pair were sitting on 32.1 following dressage and rode a textbook clear within the time to add nothing in the show jumping phase and put them in 10th place at that stage.

They jumped clear around the cross-country course, just incurring four time-penalties to finish on 36.10 and take the win. McCarthy was getting ready to show jump in the CCI4*-L with MGH Mr Messack (on whom he placed 14th), so was unaware of his success for some time.

Pouring rain

Goss and Kojak rode a polished dressage test to finish that phase on 27.7 and take the lead. A clear show jumping phase saw them hold onto that lead overnight going into the cross-country.

However, Goss had to contend with pouring rain during her cross-country round and, while jumping well, she and her mount incurred 8.8 time-penalties to finish just 0.4 faults behind the winners – the equivalent of just one second.

Padraig McCarthy and Georgie Goss celebrated an Irish one-two in the CCI-S 4* for Eight and Nine-year-olds at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials \ Nigel Goddard

McCarthy described MGH Zabaione, as “the most complete event horse I’ve ever ridden. He has won at every level and I bred him, so it’s really exciting. It’s amazing for the owners too – they believed in me when I said the horse was a really good one when I sold him to them when he was a four-year-old. I hope he’ll be a good one for championships in the future.

“I expected to get a very good result,” McCarthy added. “He’s done three four-stars now and he’s been placed every time. I didn’t expect to win it, especially with where we were after the show jumping, but to win is a huge thrill.”

Goss said: “I’m so proud of him (Kojak). There’s that natural disappointment of moving down to second, but if someone had offered me that placing on him last week, I would have snatched their hand off.”

Blenheim’s CCI 4*-L was won by New Zealand’s Tim Price and Happy Boy, ahead of Britain’s Daisy Berkeley on DIiese Du Figuier in second and Germany’s Jérôme Robiné on Black Ice in third.

Georgie Goss on Kojak took the runner-up position in the CCI-S 4* for Eight and Nine-year-olds at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials \ Nigel Goddard