The Royal Dublin Horse Show is celebrating its 142nd year as a horse show and today the Irish team are celebrating their win in the FEI Furusiyya Nations Cup. This year marked the 89th year that the Aga Khan trophy has been awarded to the winners in the prestigious team competition. The Aga Khan trophy has often eluded the home team, with their last win in 2012. However, today they put on a magical performance and blitzed the competition, finishing with just four faults on the table. The Irish team were first to go, headed by Bertram Allen and the evergreen Romanov ( x Heartbreaker). They had fence number eight down, much to the disappointment to the home crowd, who enthusiastically get behind all of the riders. The course, designed by Alan Wade proved testing yet fair, with faults spread evenly throughout the track. The bogey fence that seemed to fall the most was the Rose trellis fence just before the water jump. The second Irish rider to go was Greg Broderick and the 9 year old gelding MHS Going Global ( x Quidam Junior), they produced a fantastic clear round and were greeted by a deafening cheer from the crowd when they crossed the finish line. The Dutch team put up a solid performance, with each member of them having four faults or less in the first round. Their rider Wout-Jan van der Schans produced one of only two double clears, the other being Greg Broderick. Some riders seemed to have difficulty negotiating this testing track, with Spencer Roe (GBR) and Charlie Jayne (USA) scoring 20 faults each. Irish rider Cian o Connor celebrated his 100th cap on a nations cup team by going clear with the 9 year old stallion Good Luck ( x Canturo), while anchor rider Darragh Kenny also celebrated going clear on Sans Soucis Z ( x Surrealist v.h Paradijs). In the second round, some riders seemed to have even more difficulty on course, with both Steve Guerdat (SUI) and Charlie Jayne (USA) being eliminated. Dutch rider Johnny Pals also had trouble with his mount Vignet, who stopped for several second after fence five and continued to rear and buck until Pals was able to continue on his course, finishing with 18 faults. Towards the end of the second round it became clear as to who the winners were. Both Bertram Allen and Greg Broderick produced two more clear rounds for their team, and in the end their anchor rider, Darragh Kenny, did not have to go as he could not improve on their score. When it was announced that the Irish team had won, the home crowd yet again let out a deafening roar of cheer and applause. The Dutch team finished in second place and Switzerland finished third. Irish eyes are definitely smiling tonight. Full Results Photo ©Equnews- Lorinda Crowley
