In a notable double, Irish jumpers have secured two major international wins, when 19-year-old Bertram Allen and Molly Malone V won the Geesteren Grand Prix in the Netherlands, and Trevor Breen claimed the famous Hickstead Derby for the second year in a row.
Tipperary native Breen, who last year won the Derby on Adventure de Kannan, took an early clear round with Patricia Brown’s Irish Sport Horse Loughnatousa WB and then had to watch 30 other competitors attempt to come home with a matching zero score.
In an unusual twist, Breen also competed with Adventure de Kannan in the event, effectively jumping against himself, but Karen Swann’s gelding had two rails down to finish further down the field.
With no other clear rounds recorded in the competition, Breen took home Hickstead's Boomerang Derby Trophy and the €42,000 winner’s prize, with Cork’s Billy Twomey coming closest to his fellow countryman with just four faults on Diaghilev, finishing in equal second place.
“It’s amazing to win this famous competition two years in a row,” Breen said afterwards. “I was very nervous at the end, as the last few horses came out, and my fingernails were bitten right down. Loughnatousa B was magnificent, and he’ll have a couple of weeks off now."
At Geesteren, meanwhile, Wexford teenager Bertram Allen jumped what looked like an almost effortless two rounds in the Netherlands Grand Prix with Ballywalter Farms’s mare Molly Malone V, speeding home in the 13 horse jump-off in a blistering 42.79 seconds.
Austria’s Julia Kayser came closest to Allen with the stallion Sterrehof’s Cayetano Z, but was over four seconds off the pace of the world’s number five-ranked rider.
Allen collected a Mercedes CLA car as his prize for the Grand Prix victory.
