Padraig McCarthy raced round the tight indoor arena at the TheraPlate UK Liverpool International Horse Show to win the John Oates Horseboxes Eventing Grand Prix.
Riding Tatiana Brent’s Rosemaber Lancuest, a 14-year-old mare by Orlando, he recorded a time of 91.37 seconds — fractionally ahead of Paul Sims, who prevented an Irish whitewash by finishing second in a time of 91.43 seconds.
“She’s a super-easy, fun mare who competed to CCI4* level but is now focusing on these classes,” said Padraig, who won the indoor eventing competition in Geneva on her last winter and finished third there this year.
Paul was riding nine-year-old Second City, owned by Hayley Mather and Mark Hogan.
“He’s cool — a really fun horse,” said Paul. “He loves this — he’s a real cross-country machine.
“This was quite a similar track to the ones [course-designer] Mark Phillips produced at Bolesworth, so I knew what to expect, but this was the first time that I have jumped the joker [the huge final fence which, if cleared, took three seconds off the riders’ times]!”
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Cathal Daniels took third place on Sarah Hughes’ Alcatraz II in a time of 92.98, just knocking the final joker fence down. Cathal, who also jumped in the under-25 grand prix at Liverpool last night, confirmed that he was keeping the ride on Alcatraz II, who spent the final part of the season with Oliver Townend after moving from Alex Bragg.
Joseph Murphy and 18-year-old Sportsfield Othello, veterans of two European Championships for Ireland, also only tipped the final joker fence to finish fourth in a time of 95.33 seconds. Emma Hyslop-Webb and Pennlands Douglas were fifth, and Laura Collett and Cooley Again took sixth place.
Check back on horseandhound.co.uk for more updates from the Liverpool International Horse Show plus report in the issue of Horse & Hound magazine dated 9 January.
