Fox-Pitt swoops as leaders falter

EQUESTRIAN: William Fox-Pitt gave Irish breeding and British hopes for gold at the world equestrian games in Spain a major boost when steering the inexperienced nine-year-old Highland Lad to victory in the Burghley three-day event yesterday with a superb showjumping clear as three potential winners fell away.

Andrew Nicholson's overnight leader New York, which had relished Wolfgang Feld's demanding 32-fence cross-country track, pulled up lame at the finish and was feeling the pinch at yesterday morning's final horse inspection. The chestnut was held over for reinspection and Nicholson, after consulting the vet, withdrew.

That boosted Polly Stockton into the lead with Word For Word.Clears were at a premium yesterday but the pressure was heightened when Andrew Hoy (Mr Pracatan), Mary King (King Solomon III) and Fox-Pitt with Highland Lad were all faultless.

Leslie Law and another Irish export, the Stan The Man gelding Shear l'Eau, looked certain to follow suit until the grey rolled the final upright. Then three from home, Word For Word hit the bogey balustrade upright to hand victory to Fox-Pitt and the Taldi gelding Highland Lad, with Word For Word dropping to second. Mary King and King Solomon completed a British one-two-three.

Five Irish-breds in the top 15 gave another timely advertisement for Irish bloodlines when the threat to eventing as an Olympic sport looks likely to do serious damage to the home market.

The five Irish riders aiming for Burghley honours had mixed fortunes. Mark Kyle with Drunken Disorderly and Austin O'Connor on Horseware Fabio were impressively clear across the country, but both rolled two poles yesterday to finish 26th and 29th. Hilda Hick-Donahue was also clear all the way, but Ashmore's Scribble suffered major tendon damage to both hind legs and had to be put down.

With a fence down and three time faults yesterday, Virginia McGrath on The Yellow Earl finished 45th, while Eric Smiley pulled up Benjamin Phipps after three stops across country.

There was also mixed news from Ireland's showjumpers, with Cameron Hanley and Lieutenant David O'Brien notching up wins at Gijon in Spain.

But the team at the Dutch Nations Cup show in Rotterdam plummeted to ninth of the 10 teams to miss the cut for the second round yesterday, when only Cian O'Connor and his Kerrygold Puissance champion Irish Independent Casper were clear.