Olympian Merveldt guides novice Esporim to double runner-up places

ANNA MERVELDT, the Kildareborn rider who put Ireland on the map of world Dressage when finishing 11th at the Barcelona Olympic Games, posted a double of runner-up placings at the 3-Star International in Ornago, Italy.

On Friday she was second in the Grand Prix with the 11-year-old Lusitano stallion Esporim, scoring 70.761. And yesterday she posted 71.191 in the Grand Prix Special to again slot in behind winner Astrid Neumayer riding Zap Zap for Austria.

Esporim was relatively inexperienced when part of the team that qualified Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam, so Merveldt is keen to give him competition exposure. She was planning to take the horse to the second leg of the FEI World Cup series in Lyon next week until the event was cancelled a few days ago due to strict new Covid regulations in France.

She’s now aiming for the third leg in Salzburg, Austria in December on the road to Tokyo 2021.

Meanwhile Irish-bred horses were impressive at the WBF Young Horse Eventing Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in France, with Britain’s Ollie Townend and Tom McEwen steering Cooley Rosalent and MHS Brown Jack into second and sixth places in the six-year-old competition in which Galway’s Cathal Daniels lined up fifth with LEB Empress.

In the seven-year-olds, Ardeo Premier finished fourth for Britain’s Alexander Bragg and Unnamed lined up sixth for Italy’s Filippo Gregoroni while Ireland’s Susie Berry steered Kilcandra Capitol into 11th place.