Lieut Shane Carey continued his tremendous run of form on the opening day of the Kerrygold Horse Show yesterday. He won the first Grade A qualifier in Simmonscourt on board the talented mare, Shannondale.
Carey is a winner of three Grand Prix competitions this year, the most recent at Waterford a fortnight ago, which he claimed with the daughter of Laughton's Flight. He made it into the jump-off this time with both Shannondale and Laughton's Lass, the mare he rode to win his first Grand Prix of the season at Ballina last month.
Eight had made the cut for the jump-off and second to go Mark O'Sullivan quickly took command on board Billy Daly's eight-year-old Newmarket Girl with a footperfect clear in a time of 41.36 seconds.
Carey wisely decided not to take on the time with the first of his rides, Laughton's Lass, and slotted into temporary second in a time of 42.40, but only before Marie Burke, with her recent Hickstead Queen's Cup debutant Chippison, jumped a class round to move ahead with another clear in 41.70.
But the best was saved until last as 24-year-old Carey took centre stage with Shannondale. Well proven against the clock with numerous international speed wins to his credit, Carey had the 13-year-old turning on every landing and, with every pole remaining untouched, bolted across the line with an incredible .01 of a second in hand to take the class and a comfortable place in Saturday's final.
While Irish-breds dominated the top four in the Grade A qualifier, the first of the four-year-old deciders saw two Dutch-bred youngsters take their place at the top of the line.
Neal Fearon, riding Ard Cherrymount Stud's stallion Ard VLD Douglas, by the Dutch warmblood Darco, scored 97.33 points in the preliminary judging, leaving almost a four-point margin between first and runner-up, occupied by Liam McKee and his Dutch warmblood stallion, Nakano RB.