A challenging three-star €100,000 1.50m Grand Prix brought the two-week Split Rock Jumping Tour in Lexington, Kentucky to a close on Sunday and Kilkenny’s Richie Moloney was back on the podium with Sherlock 46.

Out of 23 starters, there were only four clear rounds through to jump-off. The time allowed for Irish course builder Alan Wade’s first-round track was tight, with Newry man Lorcan Gallagher unlucky to incur a single time penalty with Copycat to rule him out of the second round and put him in fifth place.

Of the four in the jump-off, only one jumped clear again to secure the win, namely Britain’s Amanda Derbyshire on Otto BH. Moloney finished third with Equinimity LLC’s Sherlock 46, after they had one down in a time of 42.67 seconds.

Spain’s Goyoaga Mollet on PST de Muze also incurred four faults, but their fast time of 40.68 claimed the runner-up spot, while the remaining jump-off contender, Molly Ashe Cawley (USA) on Berdien had to settle for fourth place.

Saturday saw Moloney steer the 10-year-old Ermes Di Tai to win the $35,000 CSI3* 1.45m Speed class from 19 starters, after riding a speedy clear round in 74.14 seconds to take the top spot, finishing more than two seconds ahead of the only other clear in the class, which came from an on-form Derbyshire (GBR), this time riding Vogue TW (76.51).

Michael Hutchinson on Labaomi W came second in the $2,500 1.40m Power and Speed class last Wednesday.

Sentower Park

Meanwhile, at Sentower Park in Belgium, Galway’s Michael Duffy won a four-star 1.40m class last Thursday with RMF Cinnamo and took fourth in Sunday’s four-star 1.55m jump-off class with Claptonn Mouche; Bertram Allen and the Simon Scott-bred Irish Sport Horse Pacino Amino placed sixth and Cian O’Connor on Fermoy was seventh. On Friday, Duffy secured second, third and fourth placings.