Derry's Daniel Coyle maintains 'Incredible' run

The Irish enjoyed plenty of success around the show jumping world once again, even if five-star wins just eluded Ardmore native Daniel Coyle, who was second twice with Incredible at the 67^th Washington International Horse Show, most notably in Saturday night’s Presidents Cup.

Those results propelled Coyle to the top of the North American League table for the FEI World Cup and Conor Swail registered three top-five finishes to leave the Prince George’s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro in fourth.

It was, of course, a very emotional week for Swail, as it began with his announcement that Count Me In would be retiring to Conall Murray’s Mannon Farm, in Swail’s own home town of Darragh Cross.

Crosby was a five-star winning machine, once ranked No 2 in the world and the now 18-year-old helped his rider hit No 4. He will be indelibly linked with the Aga Khan Trophy, which he helped secure for Ireland in the most dramatic fashion in 2022 with three clear rounds, including that nerve-wracking but flawless jump-off to realise a lifelong dream for his rider.

Back in Europe, Denis Lynch secured a four-star podium in Liège, while at three-star level, a very young Irish team of Susan Fitzpatrick, Niamh McEvoy, Max Wachman and Ethen Ahearne won the Nations Cup in Vejer de la Frontera, with Taylor Vard as chef d’equipe, while Cian O’Connor left with an individual victory under his belt. 

There were a couple of two-star wins also in Andalucía for Frano Derwin, including in the Grand Prix, in which McEvoy bagged the silver medal, and Daniel Fitzgerald was also on the victory trail at Sentower Park.

On Friday, Coyle was just touched off in the international accumulator competition on time by Rodrigo Pessoa, the Brazilian who was chef d’equipe of Ireland’s European Championships winning team in 2017.

The thrilling 1.45m class, which had the added ingredient of the riders and horses wearing themed costumes, went down to fine margins, with the top eight all scoring 65 points.

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They included Swail and Theo but their time of 49.26 meant they had to settle for fourth.

Coyle and Incredible - who had the very obvious Mr Incredible to base themselves on - got even closer to the lion’s share of the prize money, stopping the timers in 47.51 but Pessoa and Corrie 9 shaved 0.19 of that mark to land the honours, with the previous night’s winners, McLain Ward (USA) and First Lady completing a high-class podium.

On Saturday, the Ardmore-reared world No 9 and Incredible excelled once more, this time sporting regulation uniform. They found American favourite, Laura Kraut and the appropriately named Tres Bien Z unbeatable in the show’s feature, the President’s Cup Trophy for the $340,000 FEI Jumping World Cup.

Fittingly for such a prestigious prize, and even though the world No 1 Kent Farrington (USA) and No 2 Ben Maher (GBR) were in the field and a total of 12 Olympians, there were only three double clears and the first by Kraut, with a time of 40.83 seconds, could not be bested.

Incredible is no slouch, of course, and in Coyle has an astute navigator. The duo gave it a real go and stopped the clock in 41.14 to secure $68,000, with Maher in third on Faltic HB.