Ireland triumph in Nations’ Cup

On a big day for Irish sport, the team of Cathal Daniels, Jonty Evans, Pádraig McCarthy and Joseph Murphy won Nations' Cup competition at the three-star event in Boekelo, The Netherlands on Sunday afternoon.

Holding the overnight lead, the Irish team saw off strong challenges today from the USA and New Zealand, who finished second and third respectively.

From Loughrea, Daniels, who has won six European medals at underage level, made his senior team debut at the Dutch event. Riding Margaret Kinsella’s home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Rioghan Rua, he was one of just four competitors from a field of 79 starters to get home clear within the time over Saturday’s cross-country course for a two-phase total of 48.30.

While the Galway rider improved from 41st place after dressage to fifth, Irish individual rider Elizabeth Power from Meath jumped from 73rd to 25th when she too beat the clock with her own French thoroughbred gelding Soladoun (56.40). Others to achieve the feat were Australia's Chris Burton, who improved a place to lead overnight with Monarchs Exclusive (41.30), and Britain's Izzy Taylor, currently lying sixth on Briarlands Birdsong (48.80).

Last out of the Irish team on Saturday, Evans picked up 8.80 time penalties to slot into 13th place with Cooley Rorkes Drift (51.50), McCarthy on Simon Porloe (57.90) is in 27th position while Murphy is a further four places back on Westwinds Hercules (60.10). Best of the non-team Irish riders is Ciaran Glynn who occupies 23rd position with November Night (54.90).

In show jumping, Billy Twomey's good run at the Horse of the Year Show in Birmingham continued on Saturday evening when he won the 1.60m accumulator with Sue Davies's Tin Tin while Anthony Condon fared best of the Irish in the Puissance competition where, on board Hadine van't Zorgvliet, he divided third place.

Across the Atlantic in Lexington, Conor Swail, who claimed Friday's 1.50m Grand Prix with Viva Colombia, won last night's featured 1.45m speed class with Ilan Ferder's 10-year-old bay mare.

In showing, young Co Antrim rider Jodie Creighton narrowly failed to follow up her victory in the 2014 working hunter pony championship in Birmingham when having to settle for the reserve title with her mother Gillian's 14-year-old Connemara gelding Derrygimbla Atlantic Storm.