Aachen win leaves Coyle chasing $600,000 bonus

Trevor Coyle, who finished second in show jumping's World Cup final at Gothenburg in April with the stallion Cruising, triumphed in yesterday's £100,000 Grand Prix in Aachen, recognised as one of the sport's premier fixtures.

Just five of a world class field survived the first round, and numbers were reduced to four at the second attempt. Drawn second to go in the barrage, Coyle produced a third foot-perfect round from the Hartwell Stud sire to stop the clock on 42.35 seconds and set the target for American challenger Anne Kursinski.

A member of the silver medal team at the 1996 Olympic Games, Kursinski had the added incentive of a $600,000 bonus if she could win at Aachen - which forms the second leg of the three-part Pulsar Grand Slam - having already triumphed at Monterrey.

As the American pair hurtled through the finish, the clock showed them to be more than a 10th of a second to the good, but Kursinski's Atlanta partner Eros had connected with the second from home and that single mistake was enough to deny Kursinski in her bid to net the Pulsar bonus.

Coyle's success in Germany means that he is now in line to scoop a $600,000 cheque if he can follow the Aachen victory with a win at the Dutch fixture in Valkenswaard in August, a week after the Kerrygold Horse Show in Dublin. He could then increase his earnings to $1.5 million if he makes it a hat-trick at Monterrey.

The 40-year-old Co Armagh rider was presented with a special Irish Horse Board award last month in recognition of his achievement at the World Cup final, and he must surely have set himself up for another meeting with the Junior Minister for Agriculture, Noel Davern, after yesterday's victory.

The result is a considerable boost to flagging morale in the Irish team after disappointing results in the Nations Cup series, with Ireland finishing sixth behind the victorious Swiss in Friday's German round at Aachen.

Coyle has now established himself as one of the favourites for individual honours at Hickstead, where the European championships are to be staged in August. Brazil's world champion Rodrigo Pessoa, who pipped Coyle for the World Cup final, is not eligible for the Europeans, while defending champion Ludger Beerbaum officially retired his gold medal mare Ratina Z after the veteran finished fifth in the Aachen line-up yesterday.