Eventing - Richards Takes Bronze At World Breeding Championships

Sophie Richards claimed the Bronze Medal for Ireland today at the Eventing World Breeding Championships for Young Horses at Le Lion d'Angers in France, with the Irish Sport Horse SRS Adventure.

The Studbook ranking also saw Irish Sport Horses take first place in the overall world championships.

Richards's chestnut gelding, jointly owned by the rider and partner Steven Smith, was seventh after dressage in the Six Year-Old class on a penalty score of 47.3. The combination improved a place on Saturday during the cross country phase, and in today's final show jumping competition went clear to finish third in the hotly-contested top end of the leaderboard.

A clear show jumping round moved Co. Kildare's Melanie Young up from 13th to ninth on Caroline Bjoerk's Luidam gelding Ard Cluedo (51.9) while Co Wexford's Maria Byrne dropped two places to 16th when the OBOS Quality 004 mare Class Affair lowered a pole to add four faults.

The Six Year-Old world championship was won by Germany's individual European and Olympic champion Michael Jung with Fischerincanatas, who entered the arena today with six points in hand, and though he finished on four faults, still claimed the gold medal. Silver went to Netherlands rider Merel Blom with The Quizmaster.

Of the ten breeding studbooks competing for honours in both the Six and Seven Year-Old classes over the weekend, the Irish Sport Horse studbook finished in pole position on 151 penalties, with the German Holsteiner studbook second on 153 penalties, and the Dutch KWPN studbook in third on 153.2.