Irishman Conor Swail managed to take the win in this morning’s ATCO Founders Cup 1.50m competition aboard his new partner GK Coco Chanel. In a field of 61 starters Swail piloted two horses to clear score cards through round one, to carry on to a 13 horse jump off. The first of his two mounts to enter round two against the clock was Flower, the round was unfortunately cut short over the final fence with an unlucky fall. With the second horse still to go, Swail found redemption- and the win- crossing the finish just 0.01 seconds ahead of Eric Lamaze(CAN). Swail commented, “after what had happened with Flower I was just focused on going out and not making the same mistake on my other horse. I didn’t have the opportunity to watch Eric’s round, but in a jump off like this, you just want to ride fast without taking too many risks.” He continued, “The jump off actually suited Chanel quite well, I could just gallop along and use his extreme canter and quality – so it was nice – from the bad to the good it really showed how our sport can be sometimes.”
Following for second place an astonishing 0.01 seconds off the pace of Swail was Canadian star Eric Lamaze aboard the 11-year-old Gelding Chacco Kid. Lamaze and his top roster is looking to be in great form as they approach this weekends BMO Nations’ Cup as members of Team Canada and as a qualifier in the coveted CP International, part of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping.
The final podium finish was taken up by fellow Irishman Cian O’Connor aboard 10-year-old gelding Callisto, stopping the timers at 39.85 seconds, 1.04 seconds behind Swail. O’Conner solidified his podium finish ahead of three others who also managed to end the jump off on a double clear score card.
Full results here.
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