Derry's Daniel Coyle makes it another stellar spruce week for Irish riders

The land of the Maple Leaf is being overtaken by the Shamrock these days, it seems, as Daniel Coyle made it a sextet of five-star triumphs for Irish athletes at Spruce Meadows last night (Sunday).

That brings the tally of top-flight victories at the famed Canadian venue to 11 in two weeks, and an even dozen in all jurisdictions in that period.

Of course, back in Europe, Bertram Allen, Seamus Hughes Kennedy, Tom Wachman and Cian O’Connor also won the five-star Barrière Nations Cup at La Baule last week.

But it is total command for the Irish in Canada, as the aforementioned individual glory in Alberta arrives off a fortnight of excellent results at four-star level in Langley, where Michael Blake’s Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team of Coyle, older brother Jordan, their cousin Christian and Conor Swail won the Nations Cup at Thunderbird Show Park for the third straight renewal.

The Paris Olympian was leading rider on two consecutive weekends there, bagging a quartet of four-star classes, with Swail adding his name to the roll of honour too.

Coyle brought the curtain down on another great week for Irish athletes, and his own family, as he took the honours in the ATB Cup after doubles by his older brother and Swail, and a brilliant win by Darragh Kenny.

Farrel is quickly establishing himself as one of Ariel Grange’s best horses, making up for lost time after more than two years on the sidelines and unofficial retirement. The equation appears simple with him now, however, as illustrated over the past three weeks – Farrel lines up, he is successful.

The 15-year-old has the mileage of a much younger horse as a result of his lay-off and he is certainly operating like a horse in his prime, as he came out on top of a five-strong jump-off for the 1.50m event at Spruce Meadows that also included Kenny and Zero K, but the latter pairing knocked two rails and had to settle for fifth.

In contrast, Farrel was foot perfect and quick, his clear round in 43.89, seeing off another in-form rider, Kara Chad (CAN) with Igor GPH, who clocked 44.47.

“I’ve ridden every single ride and every single ring on every stage of a horse from 5 to 15, 16,” said Coyle afterwards. “And it has really, really improved me as a rider.

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“The time allowed (is) different here, the speeds different here. The jumps are different here. So you got to adapt to that. And when I look back at the first year I was here, lots of mistakes were made and probably ones that stuck with me forever. And I’ve learned a lot here. And I ain’t finished.”

It felt like the Meadows were an Irish playground once again. Certainly, that was the case in the International Ring.

It began with a domination of Thursday night’s activities, the Tricolour being raised for the two major jump-off contests and five of the six podium spots going to Irish athletes.

The first victory went to Kenny and Eddy Blue in the Recon Metal Cup. The Offaly native has always enjoyed travelling north from his Oakland Stables base in Wellington and he added to his CV by guiding Eddy Blue to a clear round in 40.07 in the jump-off to secure the 1.55m prize.

“It was a great class,” Kenny declared. “Very fast jump-off. I absolutely love jumping in this ring. The footing is incredible. You know, I it’s always been a lucky ring for me, actually, I’ve always had good success in it. And my horse was brilliant. He’s in super form at the moment. He had a really uncharacteristic result in the Grand Prix last week, but he bounced back and jumps super today.”

Jordan Coyle and 'For Gold'. Spruce Meadows Media

Galwegian David O’Brien and El Balou Old maintained their recent form in second – they would go on to be fourth in the 1.60m Grand Prix on Saturday -  with another in-form pairing, Swail and My Lady Lavista securing bronze.

Swail did not have to wait long to add to his illustrious record at Spruce Meadows, however. He only has Clonterm Obolensky (ISH) since May, with the nine-year-old stallion bred in Ashbourne, Co Meath previously having been campaigned domestically by Clem McMahon for owner, Ollie Glancy.

They appear to have hit it off very quickly and they have now registered four podium finishes in four and five-star level, with the triumph in the 1.50m Francis Family Cup sure to be the first of many at the highest grade.

The pair stopped the clock in 42.48 to lead home Kenny on Mendoza VDL by almost a second.

They were on the podium again the following day in the ATCO Cup, sharing third with Kenny and Zero K, the two combos remarkably stopping the clock in the jump-off on 34.76 in a thrilling tiebreaker.

Less than half a second separated the top five, and just one-tenth of a second lay between second and fifth but it was Swail that finished top of the pile for his second success of the week, this time navigating the 1.50m course in 34.38 on One Edition, 0.31 seconds quicker than Mexico’s Eugenio Garza Perez with Chalouries PS.

“One of the interesting things about the summer season at Spruce Meadows is that you can bring young horses here and get some time with them in a number of different rings,” Swail noted of the location at which he is ninth on the all-time classification of prize money earned.

“That, that really can help their trajectory as young horses.”

It was Jordan Coyle’s turn in the last 1.50m class on Friday, the RBC Capital Markets Cup. This was another Irish hegemony with three of the five clears recorded by Irish athletes and it was as the elder scion of the Ardmore dynasty that stewarded Falkirk Farm’s For Gold to victory over Swail and My Lady Lavista by almost a second, with Kenny and Diaroubet in third.

And the same duo backed it up on with a blinding display of speed on Saturday, beating off Briton Matthew Sampson and Ebolensky in the Apex Cup by more than three seconds. This was despite having a rail down, which added four seconds to their time but there was no matching their 83.51.

The Coyle brothers added to their rosettes with podium finishes in other five-star classes during the week, Jordan partnering King Kannan GP to third on Wednesday and Daniel stewarding Daydream to the same position on Friday.