Austin O'Connor, overlooked by the Irish selectors for last year's World Equestrian Games, showed his true worth yesterday by galloping Eugene McKenna's mare Simply Rhett into fourth place at a Badminton more noted for its controversy and drama than its golden jubilee celebrations.
The 24-year-old Cork-born jockey, who started his own yard in Worcestershire this season after a lengthy stint in Cornwall, had attempted to make his Badminton debut in 1996 when Hang On got no farther than the first horse inspection. There were shades of that yesterday when Simply Rhett, fourth overnight after a sensational cross-country clear in appalling conditions, was held over for re-inspection.
To the delight - and audible relief - of O'Connor's rapidly increasing fan club, the mare was given the thumbs up and went on to complete a show jumping round in which the lightest of taps at the planks was not enough to remove O'Connor from fourth - the best Irish finish since Jessica Harrington and another mare, Amoy, were third 16 years previous. "I didn't think we'd even get here," said an elated O'Connor after receiving the Glentrool Trophy from the Queen for his impressive vault up the placings from 67th after a dressage marred by the mare's unlevel paces.
"She was lame at home, sound for the trot-up, lame in the dressage and lost a shoe on the chase, but I've probably got the easiest job at the end of the day and I'm lucky to have such a great support team," he said.
The shoe was rapidly replaced and Simply Rhett went on to produce one of the classic cross-country rounds of the day on Saturday, equalling Ian Stark's winning time with the talented eight-year-old New Zealand export Jaybee.
Simply Rhett shed the same shoe during yesterday afternoon's show jumping round, but one fence down was a considerable improvement on the seven mistakes that had dropped the mare to 19th in the Burghley line-up last autumn.
Very few survived yesterday's test over the knockable fences without adding to their scores, and all of the top four added penalties for a single mistake apiece. But Ian Stark - who has led after the cross-country on six occasions and only won twice - had five fences in hand and one error simply restored the margin over runners-up Mark Todd and Word For Word, with America's Kerry Millikin third on the nippy thoroughbred Out And About.
But while O'Connor was celebrating the joys of attending a press conference surrounded by the likes of Stark and Todd, his compatriots were numbered amongst the walking wounded.
Joanne Jarden, who fell at the Vicarage Vee with the mare Belle Canna, was released from Frenchay Hospital after precautionary X-rays on a knee injury, while Eric Smiley was to be seen sporting the most popular fashion accessory at Badminton 1999 - a sling - after tearing ligaments in his shoulder in a fall with Enterprise at the fourth, the BHS Picnic Area.
Mark Kyle and Irish Patriot got three fences further before retiring after a fall at the Footbridge, while Alfie Buller never even got to the cross-country, retiring Sir Knight on the steeplechase, during a day that also saw Polly Phillipps airlifted to hospital after a hideous fall at the fifth with Coral Cove. The rider was eventually diagnosed with a broken collarbone, an injury also suffered by a spectator when Australian horse Tex jumped into the crowds at the Lake.
Mitsubishi Motors Trophy (final placings): - 1, Britain's Jaybee (Ian Stark), 100 penalties; 2, New Zealand's Word For Word (Mark Todd), 120; 3, USA's Out And About (Kerry Millikin), 149; 4, Ireland's Simply Rhett (Austin O'Connor), 155; 5, New Zealand's New York (Andrew Nicholson), 161; 6, Britain's Supreme Rock (Pippa Funnell), 169.
