Ireland’s Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K finished in a superb fourth place in the Dressage World Cup final in Nebraska, USA late last night.
This result bettered her and Ireland’s previous best World Cup final placing of eighth, which they achieved in Sweden 12 months ago.
Reynolds produced a flawless Freestyle Grand Prix test to her 80’s Divas themed music, scoring 79.571% to almost match their Irish record score and briefly hold third place with just one rider left to go.
“I’m delighted. It was more than I was hoping for
German World No.1 Isabel Werth was crowned champion for the third time when she scored 90.704% when last to enter the 17,000 seater Century Link arena with Weihegold OLD.
The American audience saw home favourite Laura Graves finish as runner-up with Verdades (85.307%), while Britain’s Carl Hester and Nip Tuck (83.757%) took the last spot on the podium ahead of Reynolds in fourth.
Afterwards Kildare-born Judy Reynolds said: “I’m delighted. It was more than I was hoping for. The new freestyle transitions are all coming together and this is the most together Vancouver K and I have been since we debuted this freestyle in Stuttgart last November.
“Following the Grand Prix here on Thursday, I took on board some observations about the passage (elevated trot) sequence and I’m thrilled that we were scoring at 97% for the degree of difficulty mark as we completed our final passage/piaffe trot sequence down the centre line.”
Reynolds and Vancouver K represented Ireland at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and their steady rise up the World rankings has given the sport of Dressage in Ireland a huge boost.
The sports governing body have reported a huge rise recently in entries, including at the Dressage Ireland Winter finals which are taking place in Cavan this weekend.
Tipperary’s Denis Lynch will represent Ireland in the Show Jumping World Cup final on Sunday evening in Omaha.
He lies in 13th place overall with the stallion All Star, with American rider McLain Ward holding pole position heading into the last two rounds of jumping.
