SHOW JUMPING – IRISH RIDERS IN THE MONEY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC

IRISH show jumpers were in the money on both sides of the Atlantic tonight (Friday), with Cork’s Shane Sweetnam collecting 8,600 euro ($11,220) for his win at the big five-star show in Wellington, Florida, and Tipperary’s Denis Lynch pocketing 12,000 euro for a second place at France’s World Cup show in Bordeaux.

Sweetnam, piloting Spy Coast Farm’s Cyklon, also saw fellow Irish rider Darragh Kenny take 5,300 euro ($6,800) for a runner-up place on Postage Stamp Farm’s Prof de la Roque, finishing just one second behind the Cork rider.

One more Irish rider made it to the top ten in Florida – Darragh Kenny and Jan van Tricht’s D Elia van het Molenhof placed ninth from a starting field of 67.

Yesterday in Wellington, Sweetnam and Cyklon had a second place in the speed class, with Kenny and Prof de la Roque finishing third. Tyrone’s Ronan McGuigan and Capall Zidane took fifth place. Olympic Bronze medallist Cian O’Connor also had a fourth place yesterday in Florida’s Grand Prix Qualifier with a double clear on Quidam’s Cherie.

In France both Billy Twomey and Denis Lynch made it to the jump-off in tonight’s feature class at five-star Bordeaux, but only Lynch went clear in the second round, riding Thomas Straumann’s gelding Abbervail van het Dingeshof. Lynch was ultimately outpaced by French star Penelope Leprevost and the mare Nice Stephanie, who stopped the clock less than half a second faster than the Irish rider, to pick up the first prize of 20,000 euro.

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