Ireland secure third place finish in Nations’ Cup

Ireland claimed third place in the FEI eventing Nations’ Cup in Aachen, Germany on Saturday following three clear rounds across the country. The winners on 145.40 penalties were Australia, who led from the dressage phase, with Germany finishing second on 154.90.

The first two teams had the luxury of a discard score which Ireland, from the outset, did not. The trio of Aoife Clark on Wasting Light (58), Elizabeth Power riding Soladoun (58.70) and Sarah Ennis on BLM Diamond Delux (63.20) completed on a combined penalty score of 179.90.

Riding his non-team horse, fischerTakinou, the host's Michael Jung was the individual winner on 42.40 penalties ahead of Australia's Shane Rose with CP Qualified (42.80). Germany's Ingrid Klimke took third with another non-team horse, Horseware Hale Bob (44.30).

Twenty-two of the 36 cross-country starters came home without jumping penalties over the Rudiger Schwarz-designed track. Just two managed to do so without time penalties, the third-placed combination and the USA's Phillip Dutton on the thoroughbred Indian Mill.

After six of the nine legs in the series, which resumes after the Olympic Games at Vairano in Italy (September 16th to 18th), Ireland is in fifth place on 250 points with the lead being held by Great Britain on 465.

Competing in the five-star show jumping section at the same venue, Co Wexford's Bertram Allen enjoyed a profitable Saturday. He first finished fourth in the 1.55m winning round class riding Billy Twomey's 18-year-old Heartbreaker stallion Romanov and then partnered GK Casper into second place in the young horse final.

Although the eight-year-old Holstein stallion was beaten in the class by the Hannoverian mare Calanda 42, ridden by Germany's Marcus Ehning, the dark bay son of Canto was crowned best young horse of the show. On a points system over three classes, the Ballywalter Farms-owned GK Casper completed on a score of 61 with Calandra 42 third on 50.5. The pair were split on 57 points by the Selle Francais mare Utah d'Aiguilly which, under France's Simon Delestre, finished third on Saturday.

Riding her Olympics horse Vancouver K, Co Kildare's Judy Reynolds recorded a score of 73.325% to place ninth of 29 in Saturday's Grand Prix Special in the dressage section of the show. The class was won by Germany's Kristina Bröring-Sprehe on the black stallion Desperados FRH (83.725).