Omagh’s Peter Smyth won the ebookers Masters on his first year at international level at the Dublin Horse Show at the RDS, Ballsbridge today.
Meanwhile, Kildare's Cian O'Connor came within a whisker of repeating his magic 2002 Puissance win, but his new mount, ‘Irish Independent Absolon’, failed in the final three-horse jump-off, giving the win to Britain's veteran Michael Whitaker on ‘Da Capo’.
Smyth took his former trotter, the Irish-bred ‘Zara's Pride’ from national Grand Prix level to international status this week with a sixth in Thursday's Speed Derby and a convincing win today in the Masters.
Taking second in the Masters, Clem McMahon raised his score in the Leading Rider category and is now a point ahead of County Tyrone’s Harry Marshall.
Marshall had a rapturous reception from the huge Dublin crowd who turned out to watch the Puissance on a hot, overcast afternoon, but although he twice smacked the coping on the giant wall, managed to stay in the running up until the very last round, when the height maxed out at 2m 16, and his Irish-bred bay gelding ‘XL’ finally dislodged the bricks.
The other two riders in the fourth round jump-off with Marshall, Whitaker and crowd favourite O'Connor, had both given every indication that they could take the competition to at least one more round, but O'Connor's final approach seemed a trifle rushed, and his mount neatly took out a whole section of the wall that seemed to collapse in slow motion long after the horse's hooves had hit the ground.
Whitaker took the €7000 prize, though the final height of 2m 16 was significantly below O'Connor's 2m 25 win of last year.
Tomorrow sees the final international competitions at Dublin, with the Speed Stakes at lunchtime, and what promises to be a hotly contested Samsung International Grand Prix in the afternoon.
Filed by James Boylan
