THE current Olympic silver medallists USA conquered the Underwriting Exchange Aga Khan Nations Cup on Friday at the RDS Dublin Horse Show, winning the class for the first time since 2017.

Chef d’equipe Robert Ridland made the brave decision to leave superstar rider Laura Kraut off the team, but he needn’t have worried when Spencer Smith, Lucy Davis, Aaron Vale and McLain Ward stepped up to win in emphatic style on a final score of four faults. Ireland, for the second year in-a-row, finished in second place, while Britain took the final step on the podium.

Fresh from the Olympic Games in Paris just 10 days earlier, there was a star-studded line up of the best riders in the world competing for the coveted Aga Khan trophy at the RDS arena, including team gold medallist Ben Maher for Britain, individual silver medallist Steve Guerdat for Switzerland and USA’s aforementioned silver team medal winner McLain Ward.

World number one, Henrik von Eckermann, was back in Dublin for the first time in 10 years, in a bid to help Sweden win the competition for the first time ever.

According to the statistics company EquiRatings, Ireland came into the competition as the slight favourites with an 18% win chance, just shading Sweden (17%) and France (16%). The latter were eliminated from the competition, when two of their riders failed to complete the first round.

Tipperary’s Alan Wade built a 12-fence track, over which there were plenty of clears in the first round. The fences that caught out the most horses and riders were the treble combination (4a,b,c) and fence five, a tall vertical. In the second round, more riders were caught out by the last line combination of a vertical-oxer double down to the last fence, the iconic telephone box.

Great start

Ireland were drawn sixth of the eight teams and Darragh Kenny was first out with VDL Cartello (Cartani 4 x Lord), a 17-year-old stallion owned by Heathman Farm. The pair were the alternate combination for the Paris Olympic Games last week, but were not called upon. That showed, as the grey stallion looked fresh around Wade’s track to complete with a perfect clear round. Seven of the eight first-line riders all jumped clear.

Mark McAuley was second to go for Ireland with the Irish Sport Horse GRS Lady Amaro, an 11-year-old mare by Amaretto D’Arco out of the Over The River mare Legal Lady. She was bred by his uncle, Denis Hickey, and is owned by SC McAuley Equestrian. McAuley jumped a perfect first round clear to keep Ireland in the hunt.

Mark McAuley and GRS Lady Amaro (ISH) jump clear in the first round of the Aga Khan Nations Cup at the 2024 Dublin Horse Show \ Laurence Dunne jumpinaction.net

Denis Lynch was next aboard the 11-year-old stallion Vistogrand (Fantaland x Mr Visto), owned by Lynch and Tipperary’s Finest Est. Despite tapping the first two parts of the treble combination, Vistogrand was his exuberant self and came home clear to see Ireland finish the first round on a score of zero.

Fresh from the Olympic Games, Cian O’Connor was in the anchor position aboard the lovely nine-year-old stallion Fancy De Kergane (Berdenn de Kergane x Cor De Hus), owned by Susan Magnier and Coolmore Showjumping. The score didn’t matter, with Ireland already in the club house on zero, so the four faults picked up at fence five, plus a single time fault, made no difference to Ireland’s position.

Ireland were joined on zero faults by USA, who had a faster combined time and were therefore drawn last to go in round two. Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland were all on eight faults, ahead of Britain on 12 faults in seventh place.

France were eliminated after a fall from Julien Gonin at the water, while Francois Xavier Boudant was eliminated from the competition after blood was found on the flank of Brazyl du Mezel. Some 15 of the starting 32 jumped clear in the first round.

Pressure

Going in reverse order of merit in the second round, Ireland were sixth of the now seven teams into the arena. Kenny faulted at fence five to finish on four faults. USA kept their hopes alive when Spencer Smith was clear again with Keeneland.

It went wrong for McAuley at the end of the track, when his chesnut mare knocked the last two fences – 11b and 12. However, USA’s Lucy Davis (Ben 431) knocked the last fence to pick up four faults, so Ireland were still in touching distance.

Lynch was unlucky when Vistogrand hardly touched the final part of the treble combination, but it fell and he finished with four faults. After the third-line riders, Ireland were joint second on eight faults with Belgium and Switzerland, one fence behind USA, who were out in front on four faults when Aaron Vale (Carissimo 25) also had a pole down.

It was all to play for with the final seven riders to come. O’Connor returned to the arena, knowing he needed a clear round if Ireland were to have any chance of the top step on the podium. As he has done so many times as Ireland’s most capped rider, he produced the goods to pile the pressure on the USA.

McLain Ward had to jump a clear to guarantee a USA win; a fence down would mean a jump-off with Ireland.

The five-time Olympian never looked in doubt with the wonderful 16-year-old mare Callas, jumping a flawless clear, one of six double clears, to secure the victory for USA.

Britain rallied with three clears in the second round from Ben Maher (Exit Remo), Tim Gredley (Medoc de Toxandria) and Matt Sampson (Daniel) to finish on 12 faults in third place.

What they said

Course designer, Alan Wade: “I am sure all the experts said it was too easy after the first five horses but it was exciting to the end. I think it proved worthy of good competition and good sport and worthy of the Aga Khan which, in my opinion, is the most important day in Ireland.”

USA rider, McLain Ward: “It’s my first Aga Khan win and it feels brilliant. Dublin for me is one of the shows I grew up dreaming of being successful at when I was probably younger than my daughter, who is at the back of the room. I am very proud to share it with her. This is a great moment. Callas performed beautifully, especially in the second round.”

USA rider Lucy Davis: “The last time I was lucky enough to be here was nine years ago. I took a bit of a break from the sport leading into and largely prompted by Covid. I regrouped with my personal life, I was young when I did a lot of things and I thought I would try other things but didn’t like those other things! Thanks to a great group of owners I was able to come back with a great horse. We got to accelerate our entry back into the Grand Prix ring with Laura Kraut and Nick Skelton’s help. Ben has a lot of energy so hopefully that bodes well for Sunday [Grand Prix].”

Chef D’equipe Michael Blake: “I’m so proud of our lads. After a long year they’ve done a great job. If things had been just a little different we’d have won, but we were very close.

We’ve gone to America twice and beaten them on their home soil and I suppose they’ve paid us back now.”