BONHEIDEN in Belgium hosted a one-star and two-star show over the weekend, also catering for young horses.

The highlight of the show was the two-star 1.45m Longines Ranking Grand Prix on Sunday, in which two Irish athletes were among the top four. Tyrone’s Emily Turkington finished second with Donald Loughran’s 10-year-old grey gelding Cornet. Just 15 of the 59 starters got through to the jump-off, with only six managing to jump double clear. Turkington’s jump-off time of 37.10 seconds was less than a second behind the winner, Slovakia’s Gaj Riossa on Manglar Ls La Silla (36.47). Tipperary’s Max Wachman took fourth with Calox (38.66).

Fresh from their team silver medal at Valkenswaard the previous weekend, Ireland’s Emma O’Dwyer had a great start on Thursday, when winning the Young Horse one-star Seven and Eight-year-old 1.30/1.40m class riding Dougie Drea. The pair fared best of the 49 starters, when jumping double clear, with a jump-off time of 25.38 seconds.

Thursday also saw Turkington ride Cornet into fourth place from a start list of 60 in the two-star 1.40m speed class, when they jumped clear in 63.49 seconds. The win went to Poland’s Przemyslaw Konopacki on Expression’Quill in 57.68.

O’Dwyer was back in the ribbons on Saturday, when third in the two-star 1.35m class on Dudley Z. From 51 starters, 24 jumped clear, with O’Dwyer finishing in 63.94, less than a second behind the winner, France’s Guillaume Paroty on Fivestar des Baleines (62.99).

O’Dwyer was also runner-up in the Young Horse one-star Seven and Eight-year-old 1.35/1.40m Final with Dougie Drea (32.43), when they finished just four-tenths of a second behind Belgian winner Gilles Thomas on Qalista DN (32.02) in the jump-off. Sophie Dalm and Milana placed seventh in the class (35.03).

Reisenbeck

Clare’s Eoin McMahon and the eight-year-old Kokomo B, owned by Beerbaum Stables, won a two-star 1.45m speed class at Reisenbeck International in Germany on Friday.

Of the 45 starters, 15 jumped clear rounds, with the fastest 12 taking a share of the prize fund. As it turned out, McMahon clocked the fastest time of 62.38 seconds to take the win and the lion’s share of the $3,000 on offer. Next best was Pål Flam (NOR) and Mega Special Dc, who got very close, but had to settle for second place (62.72).