Temperatures rose even higher at a sun-baked RDS in the Dublin Horse Show today but the heat did not seem to affect the speed of the Irish riders. In front of near-capacity crowds, tomorrow's Aga Khan team-mates Billy Twomey and Cian O'Connor produced two classic rounds to take the number one spots in the Power and Speed and Speed Derby competitions respectively.
But the Power and Speed also saw Irish riders take second, third, fourth and fifth slots, while in the Speed Derby only France's Michel Hecart and Italy's Roberto Arioldi managed to elbow their way into the top six places.
Armagh's Harry Marshall led the Power and Speed class on ‘Splendido’ from early in the day, but Cork's Billy Twomey, riding ‘anastasia’ and sixth last to jump, delivered a poised, textbook round that shaved just under a second off Marshall's time, to clinch the class.
Kildare's Cian O'Connor took the nine-year-old bay mare ‘aBC Landliebe’ around the Derby course at a pace so fast that no-one came even close to closing the gap. Malahide-based Conor Swail was closest on ‘Windgate's Mystique’, yet finished just short of three seconds behind the 23-year-old Kildare rider.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
