Irish Riders Notch Up Two More Grand Prix Wins

Galways Sven Hadley, one of two Irish riders at the show in Metz, France, won the two star Grand Prix with the bay mare Adelgonde Z, beating 13 others in the jump off for the first prize.

The 17 year-old, who also won France's Barbizon Grand Prix with the mare in March, notched up a previous win at Metz on Friday in the 1m45 jump off competition.

Fellow Irish rider Kelly O'Connor later took a seventh place in the one-star Grand Prix at Metz with Ananda.

Other senior Irish show jumpers came tantalisingly close to Grand Prix victory this evening. In Drammen, Norway, Limerick's Shane Carey placed third in the Grand Prix on Ballymore Eustace, with Capt. Michael Kelly and Ringwood Abbey in seventh.

At the three star show in Comporta, Portugal, Kilkenny's Marion Hughes and the Irish Sport Horse Heritage HHS Fortuna were forced into second place by a single mistake, conceding victory to Italy's Juan Carlos Garcia. Strabane native Peter Smyth, who has been having consistent success in the recent Iberian shows, placed sixth in the same Grand Prix with Hermoine IV.

Irish Pony rider Paraic Kenny did, however, win outright at the Grand Prix in Hagen in Germany on the Connemara Pony Grey Ross today, while Susan Fitzpatrick took a ninth place on Petrus Spartacus. Yesterday, 16 year-old Bertram Allen won the Junior Grand Prix at Hagen with the mare Wild Thing L.

Ireland's pony team of Darragh Ryan, Molly O’Shea, Matt Garrigan and Tom Foley finished fifth in the German Nations' Cup at Hagen on Friday.