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Irish clean sweep of prizes at Odyssey


Conor is young star of the show

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Published Date: 29 October 2008
Ireland's show-jumpers won all 14 classes at this year's Northern Ireland International Horse Show with the exception of Great Britain's young superstar Ellen Whitaker. Ellen took joint first place with Ireland's Damien Griffin at the Lagan Puissance.
The young star of the Show had to be 15-year-old Conor Drain from Co. Antrim who won the Stena Line One Star Invitational Class at every Show on two different horses.
Irish rider Billy Twomey stole the Show with three wins throughout, making him the highest prize winner for this year's Show and the overall winner of the WKD Grand Prix.
Major winners claiming a slice of the £100,000 jackpot were Cian O'Connor who won the Ballywalter Wind Farms International Stakes, with David O'Brien winning the NK Fencing International Jumping.
Commenting on this year's show, President Joe Sloan said: "We could not be happier with this year's Show, the numbers attending were incredible.
"The equestrian talent on Show was world class with courses designed by the best in the business. The display acts were spectacular, everyone who attended thoroughly enjoyed a truly remarkable four days for all the family," he added.
Twomey confirmed his status as the star of the Northern Ireland International Horse Show on Sunday with a decisive win in the final competition of the show, the WKD Grand Prix.
With two wins and several top ten places already under his belt, the 31-year-old Cork-born rider produced the Grand Prix's only double clear round with his own eight year-old bay stallion 'Je t'Aime Flamenco', while German runner up Marc Bettinger carried two time faults and trailed the Irish rider by almost ten seconds in the eight-horse jump-off.
Tenth place at the Odyssey arena went to 20-year-old Benny Kuehnle and the Irish-bred 'Cruising's Mickey Finn' on a first round tally of eight faults, while Ballyclare's Harry Marshall and 'Mandarin Smoke' also finished on a first round score of eight to claim 11th position.
Twomey had recorded his second win of the weekend earlier in the evening with Carron Nichol's mare 'Fantasia'.
An on-fire Billy Twomey racked up his second win of the weekend when he stole the Horse Sport Ireland jump-off class with over four seconds in hand on Carron Nichol's mare 'Fantasia'.
Twomey's stablemate Anthony Condon was second in the eight horse jump-off at Belfast with the ten year-old stallion 'Goldex', while Paul O'Shea took the next-best Irish place on the Irish-bred 'Shannondale Maccala'. Edward Doyle piloted another Irish-bred, the Cruising mare 'Flexing', into tenth.
Twomey also won the single round Horse Sport Ireland class on Saturday night, also on 'Fantasia', and placed his own 'Je t'Aime Flamenco' in eighth in the same competition. He was runner-up on Thursday night in the Belfast Welcome stakes.
On Friday, David O'Brien, one of Ireland's top International show jumpers, won the NK Fencing International Jumping at this years 2008 Northern Ireland International Horse Show at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.
Earlier in the evening performance Cian O'Connor won the Maxol Direct Acummulator on Irish Independent Echo Beach.

The full article contains 531 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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  • Last Updated: 29 October 2008 8:44 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: belfast
 
 
  

 
 


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