Cameron Hanley, who got a last-minute call-up less than a fortnight ago to join the Irish show-jumping team at the World Equestrian Games in Rome, found his debut on a championship team under threat when his horse Waldo was held over for reinspection at yesterday afternoon's trot-up.
The 10-year-old German-bred gelding was lame behind and Hanley, who was drafted into the squad after Eddie Macken was forced to pull out from the Rome trip when both his top horses Miss FAN and FAN Schalkhaar were lame, has been told to present Waldo for further inspection at eight o'clock this morning, before the start of the warm-up class.
Irish chef d'equipe Tommy Wade will name his championship quartet this afternoon, and Waldo is expected to jump in today's warm-up, providing he is given the all-clear this morning. The horse arrived at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome at four o'clock yesterday morning after travelling from his Swiss base in Willi Melliger's lorry and it is hoped that travel stiffness was the cause of the problem.
His rider was certainly taken aback by the decision to re-inspect the horse, and hopes that the gelding will be 100 per cent this morning. But the 25-year-old Co Mayo jockey has had a good build-up to the Italian fixture, riding Groussous on Ireland's winning Nations Cup team in Athens at the weekend, yet it is a big step-up in class to a world championship and, providing the other four horses jump well today, it is unlikely that Hanley will be part of the Rome team.
Morale is pretty high in the Irish camp. As well as the Nations Cup win for the B team in Athens, where Marion Hughes finished second in the Grand Prix and took the leading rider title, Peter Charles tuned up for the World Games with a stunning victory in the Bremen German Classic on Sunday night.
Teamed up with Carnavelly, the former European champion had the beating of Holland's Jos Lansink and reigning European champion Ludger Beerbaum for a winner's purse of £40,000. Charles hadn't arrived back from Bremen in time to trot up Traxdata T'Aime yesterday afternoon, but Army rider Captain John Ledingham made a more than able stand-in, trotting up the 10-year-old after presenting his own Hickstead Derby specialist Kilbaha.
T'Aime was duly given the thumbs up yesterday, along with Kilbaha, the stallion Cruising which Trevor Coyle rides for Hartwell Stud, and Erik Holstein's Ballaseyr Kalosha.
The serious competition gets under way tomorrow, with the first leg of the individual championship run as a speed class.
