Irish riders to the fore in Stuttgart

Irish riders were to the fore on the first day of the World Cup show at Stuttgart in Germany, with Cork's Billy Twomey collecting the €16,000 runner-up prize in the German Masters, and Tipperary-born Shane Breen winning the earlier speed class.

Twomey first had a fifth place today in the speed qualifier for the Masters competition, riding Sue Davies's Tinka's Serenade, and brought the mare out five hours later to do battle in the night's feature class, which was restricted to 12 riders.

Though one of six to make it to the jump-off, the 34 year-old Irishman stopped the clock just under a second slower than Switzerland's Pius Schwizer, who took the Mercedes GLK 350 first prize with a faultless round on the Dutch-bred gelding Verdi III.

Denis Lynch and his stallion Contifex also qualified for the Masters, but a rail down in the first round left the combination in ninth place overall.

Shane Breen and Paul Gill's Irish-bred KEC Alicante were comfortable winners of the lunchtime speed class at Stuttgart, outpacing French challenger Pénélope Leprevost and Modena by almost four seconds.