Equestrian - Twomey Chalks Up Fourth Irish Win At British Horse Of The Year Show

Billy Twomey recorded Ireland's fourth win of the weekend at the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) in Birmingham today (Sunday) when he claimed victory in the Speed Horse of the Year competition with Ardcollum Duke. Wexford's Bertram Allen also took a fifth place in tonight's British Grand Prix, while in Germany Denis Lynch was runner-up in the Kiel Grand Prix..

In the speed class at Birmingham Cork-born Twomey and Joe Flynn's Irish Sport Horse stopped the clock just under a second faster than Britain's John Whitaker and Lord Of Arabia to collect the first prize of 4,000 euro. Ireland's David Simpson and Arantos also took sixth place.

It was the second time England's Whitaker had lost out to an Irish rider at the three-star show, having already conceded victory to Tipperary's Trevor Breen and Karen Swann's one-eyed Adventure de Kannan in Friday night's feature class.

Saturday night at Birmingham saw Co. Antrim's Simpson share first prize in the Puissance competition when he and three British riders went clear to the fourth jump-off, where they all collected four faults.

Billy Twomey started Ireland's run of successes at HOYS when he produced a definitive win on Friday with Katrina Moore's Royale du Rouet in the Five Fence Challenge, just ahead of fellow-countryman Cian O'Connor and Ulme De Feugeres. Bertram Allen and Belmonde placed equal fourth.

Nineteen year-old Allen also came close to registering Ireland's fifth victory at Birmingham tonight when he steered Billy Twomey's stallion Romanov through to the six horse jump-off in the Grand Prix, but unfortunately two poles on the ground in the last round left him in fifth place overall, but collecting 4,000 euro in prize money. The Grand Prix was won by France's Julien Epaillard and Cristallo A LM, who went home with the first prize of 17,000 euro.

Elsewhere, Denis Lynch brought out his new mount, Flaminia Straumann's Quote Zavaan, to claim second place at the three-star Grand Prix at Kiel in Germany. Lynch narrowly lost out to Germany's Jِrg Naeve and Castro in the jump-off.

Ireland's Ger Clarke and the Irish Sport Horse Rafiki were runners-up in the Grand Prix at Dunkerque in France, while in Eventing the loss of team horse Simon Porloe, withdrawn by rider Padraig McCarthy before the show jumping phase today at the Nations' Cup at Boekelo in the Netherlands, left Ireland with just three riders and the team dropped from overnight fourth to fifth of ten nations competing. The trophy was won by New Zealand.