Tipp showjumper part of the Ireland team in five-star FEI Nations Cup in Rotterdam

In what has been an excellent afternoon of top show jumping action Ireland finished as runners up in the CSIO5* Nations Cup in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Starting the afternoon off, Daniel Coyle won the 1.50 Ranking Class in the CSIO5* in Rotterdam with Legacy, a 13-year-old mare owned in partnership between Coyle and Ariel Grange.

Staying in Rotterdam, in the five-star FEI Nations Cup Michael Blake’s team proved a force to be reckoned with. Michael Duffy got The Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team off to a stellar start, jumping clear with Cinca 3, owned by Hibernian Sport Horses Ltd.

Clear rounds were few and far between in the opening round. An unfortunate two fences down from Tipp native Trevor Breen and Highland President, owned by Heather Black, meant they were the discard score in the opening round.

Next in for Ireland was Cian O’Connor riding Eve d’Quilly, owned by Nicole Walker. One fence down for this combination kept Ireland in contention. Following his victory earlier in the day, Coyle once again delivered.

Partnering Grange’s Gisborne VDL, he produced an excellent clear round, leaving Ireland on a team score of 4 penalties after the opening round and in pole position.

At the half way marker it was all to play for, Ireland were just 1 penalty ahead of The Netherlands. Duffy was the first rider across all the teams to jump double clear, and proved to be only rider to do so.

Breen had one fence down in his second round. A clear round from O’Connor extended Ireland’s lead. With one rider left to jump Ireland sat on a team total of 4 ahead of the home nation on 6. Jumping in reverse order, the pressure was on following a clear round from the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, one fence down for Coyle pushed Ireland into second place finishing on a team score of 8. Germany completed the podium on a team score of 24.