O'Connor leads Irish to third place

Austin O'Connor, who confounded his critics by riding the mare Simply Rhett into fourth place at Badminton in May, led the Irish team to third place at the Bonn-Rodderberg three-star in Germany yesterday.

O'Connor, who is now based in his own yard in Worcestershire, took over the ride on Tom MacGuinness' Horseware Fabio this spring and has campaigned the gelding with considerable success on the British one-day circuit. Bonn-Rodderberg was the first three-day outing for the new combination, but individual 23rd place from a start list of 96 gives Cork-born O'Connor another string to his bow at the top level as Horseware Fabio is now qualified for next year's Olympic Games.

Stuart Crawford and Kingatchacuk, individual runners at last year's World Equestrian Games in Rome, also booked their ticket for Sydney by finishing 24th, one slot ahead of Joanne Jarden and Bellecanna, boosting the selectors' choice still further for the 2000 Games squad.

Unfortunately, Tom Doherty's hopes of a top placing with the giant Ballyharry were rudely dashed when he was eliminated in the show jumping after holding 21st place overnight.

A momentary lapse meant the Co Antrim rider had to circle back to the eighth fence, but Ballyharry then slid to an unexpected stop at the water tray, nearly falling in the process, and when Doherty executed another circle before re-presenting the horse, he was instantly dismissed for three technical refusals.

Alison Kissock was delighted with the performance of the diminutive dun cob Dun An Ri, making his debut at three-star level. Although he picked up 40 penalties for a runout at the second table in the four-part Beer Garden towards the end of the course and also added 99 time faults, he recorded a finishing score that many of his more senior counterparts failed to do.

New Zealander Blyth Tait, holder of both the world and Olympic titles, missed out in his bid to take the Bonn-Rodderberg honours when Ready Teddy squandered his lead with two fences down in the show jumping, handing victory to Australia's Andrew Hoy and Swizzle In.

Tait slipped to second ahead of Ingrid Klimke with last year's Le Lion d'Angers winner Sleep Late to clinch the German national title. Klimke, who had won the CIC class on Saturday with the talented seven-year-old Windfall, now tops the German long-list for the European championships, which take place in Luhmuhlen in September.

Also on the continent, show jumper Robert Splaine and the stallion Convent Hill Diamond finished in second place in Saturday's main class at Deauville, while Eddie Macken's son Stevie followed in his father's footsteps by finishing third in the Lummen Derby in Belgium with Sky View.