THE European champion, Britain’s Ros Canter, won her second five-star event of the year last weekend at Pau, France, where on board her own and Alex Moody’s Izilot DHI, she claimed the honours with five of her compatriots following immediately in her wake.

Second after dressage, Canter’s completion score of 28.7 on the 10-year-old Zavall VDL gelding (who was bringing up a hat-trick of victories having previously won the CCI4*-L at Blenheim and the CCI4*-S at Blair Castle) included 3.2 time penalties across the Pierre Michelet-designed cross-country course and 2.2 in Sunday’s show jumping phase.

Oliver Townend moved up from fifth after dressage to second with the British Sport Horse gelding Tregilder (34.4), a 13-year-old bay by Royal Concorde who has six Irish Sport Horses siblings; their completion score included 7.2 cross-country time penalties. The dressage winners on 23.1, Tom McEwen and the 12-year-old Diarado gelding JL Dublin, who lost their hold on the top spot with eight cross-country time penalties, had a fence down show jumping on Sunday to drop a place further to third on 35.1.

Joseph Murphy riding Barrichello in the dressage phase at Pau \ Equus Pix

The ISH geldings Coolparks Sarco (Piggy March), an 11-year-old Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan bay who won the CCI4*-L at Millstreet this year, and SRS Kan Do (Kylie Roddy), a 2010 VDL Arkansas bay, recorded double clears with a small number of cross-country time penalties apiece to finish fourth (36.5) and fifth (39.7) respectively. Whipping in for Britain in sixth was Kirsty Chabert who, 22nd after dressage, had been lying third overnight but had two fences down on Sunday with the highest-placed mare, Classic VI (41.4). Chabert had partnered this 14-year-old home-bred daughter of Calvaro to win the CCI4*-S at Lisgarvan having finished second in the CCIO4*-NC-S at Millstreet.

Sarah Ennis with Grantstown Jackson at Les 5 Etoiles De Pau 2023 \ Equus Pix

Best of Irish

Best of the five Irish riders in the 55-runner field was Co Meath’s Sarah Ennis, who filled that vacated 22nd place on the ISH gelding Grantstown Jackson whose very supportive owners, Peter Cole and Susanna Francke, were on hand as usual. Their Clover Brigade 12-year-old, who was bred in Co Waterford by Caroline Widger out of an unraced thoroughbred mare by Right Win, was competing at five-star level for the first time.

“He couldn’t cope with the noise and atmosphere at the Europeans (at Le Pin du Haras in early August) but was much better here,” said Ennis who finished 20th at Pau in 2016 on Horseware Stellor Rebound. “The 20 penalties we picked up across the county (at 9c) were unlucky as he had his head up in the air coming around the corner and never saw the fence. It’s hard to get the time here as, although it’s basically a flat course, it’s very twisty and they have put a lot of mounds on it, which slow things right down. The time was probably a fraction too tight this year.”

The USA’s Boyd Martin was the only rider to beat the clock on Saturday but, most expensively, he triggered the frangible pin at 13b (a corner following an oxer) to pick up 11 jumping penalties on the Dutch Warmblood gelding Fedarman B, who was clear show jumping to finish eighth overall on 42.7. Resetting pins and fixing fences resulted in a lot of holds on-course.

Challenges

“Pau can no longer be called an easy five-star as the cross-country track was really ramped up,” continued Ennis, who drove to and from the event in the entertaining company of Felicity Ward and Daragh Byrne. They arrived back in Co Meath around midnight on Monday with Ennis attending the Gain awards (see page 90) in Kilkenny the following afternoon. “There were a lot of combination fences (45 jumping efforts over 31 numbered fences) and it asked a huge amount of questions. It was a proper five-star track and the show jumping was the same, right up-to-height (Ennis and Grantstown Jackson had one fence down and were two seconds over the time in this phase). I’ve a lot of home-work to do over the winter!

“Fair play to the Brits, they were very strong and were very well organised. We, on the other hand, had no support. We were left to our own devices with no team manager and no team vet, which was not an ideal situation in a pre-Olympics year. Dag (Albert) did send us his best wishes and we were very lucky that Gillian Kyle (who was at Pau as a guest having served as technical delegate at the event for the past four years) said she would help us when she could and walked the track with some of us. I was fortunate that Ian Woodhead had time to help me with my dressage and it made all the difference.”

Ennis was one of three Irish riders at the event with previous five-star experience. First to compete, Kanturk’s Felicity Ward had a disappointing result as, lying 41st after dressage on James O’Callaghan’s ISH gelding Regal Bounty (35.7), she retired the Orestus 12-year-old at the troublesome fence 13ab on Saturday.

Killyleagh’s Joseph Murphy, who was competing for the first time since injuring his hand in a fall at Ballindenisk a month previously, finished 26th on Sarah Hughes’ 14-year-old AES gelding Barrichello. Their total of 93.5 included 11 penalties for triggering the frangible device at 13b on the cross-country course, where they also picked up 40 time penalties. On Sunday, they lowered two fences and were a second over the time.

Ian Cassells riding Master Point at Les 5 Etoiles De Pau \ Rynes Walker Photography \ Equus Pix

Debutantes

There were contrasting results also for the two Irish five-star debutantes, Ian Cassells and Daragh Byrne.

The former, who was best of the quintet after dressage in 20th with Bridget McGing’s home-bred ISH gelding Master Point (32.3), dropped to 33rd on the Saturday when 30 penalties for two ‘missed’ flags at fences 4b and 7b and 32.8 for time gave them a two-phase total of 95.1. With a fence down show jumping and 2.4 time penalties on the final leg, Cassells and the 10-year-old Pointilliste gelding completed in 30th place (101.5).

Sadly, Byrne didn’t have the best experience on his first foray into top level company. Riding his father James’ ISH gelding Kilcannon Ramiro, Co Tipperary-based Byrne, who was lying 50th after the flat work phase, was eliminated when unseated from the 11-year-old Ramiro B gelding at fence 16, a hunting hedge, one of the very few standalone fences to cause a problem on Saturday. Thankfully, neither horse nor rider were injured in the incident.

The USA’s RLE Limbo Kaiser was withdrawn by rider Katherine Coleman at the first horse inspection and, of the 55 combinations who came under starter’s orders, 21 failed to finish. One horse was eliminated at the second horse inspection, where two were withdrawn. There were seven retirements across the country and 10 eliminations.