Ireland Takes Fourth & Seventh In Bordeaux World Cup Class

Irish riders took fourth and seventh place in tonight's (Saturday) big World Cup class at the five-star show in Bordeaux, France, after a thrilling 13-horse jump-off.

Both Mayo's Cameron Hanley and Cork's Billy Twomey delivered clear rounds first time out, but Ireland's third World Cup competitor, Tipperary's Denis Lynch, faulted once on Abbervail van het Dingeshof and denied himself a shot at the prize money.

Twomey, riding Sue Davies's experienced 17 year-old mare Tinka's Serenade, gave another sparkling performance in the jump-off, but failed to close the six-tenths of a second needed to overtake the eventual winner, Germany's Marcus Ehning and Cornado NRW.

Hanley, still in recovery after a long injury lay-off, was last to jump tonight with Eleonore Paschoud and Yves Bouvier's Antello Z, but though leaving all the poles standing, returned a time that was almost four seconds off the pace of the winner, who collected 50,000 euro.

Twomey picked up 15,000 euro for his fourth place, but more importantly gained enough points to put him into tenth place in the World Cup's Western European League, guaranteeing the Cork rider a place in the World Cup final later this month in Gothenburg.

Second place at Bordeaux tonight went to Lady Georgina Forbes's 14 year-old mare Castle Forbes Myrtille Paulois, ridden by France's Roger Yves Bost.