Swiss take the leading role
The first Nations Cup of the season produces runaway winners, but the Irish fight their way into second spot
SWITZERLAND’S team took maximum points at the opening leg of European division one in the Longines FEI Nations Cup of 2018 at the superb venue of Samorin in Slovakia. Werner
Muff (Daimler), Paul Estermann (Curtis Sitte), Martin Fuchs (Chaplin) and Steve Guerdat (Hannah) led on a zero score at halfway, and Steve did not have to jump a second time because they had already won.
“The others made it a nice, easy Sunday afternoon for me. There was no point in jumping because it’s the start of a long season,” Steve said.
It was an up-and-down afternoon for Ireland’s Shane Breen (Ipswich Van De Wolfsakker), Mark McAuley (Utchan De Belheme), Paul
O’Shea (Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu) and Shane Sweetnam (Chaqui Z).
Shane Breen began with an uncharacteristic 12 faults, then came back in round two with just one mistake. Mark cleared everything in round one, but picked up a time-penalty. He pushed on second time around and collected eight faults. Shane Sweetnam had one mistake in both rounds, while the star of the team was Paul O’Shea. The Florida-based rider worked his socks off to contain the feisty Dutch-bred Silverstone gelding and jumped one of only four double clears in the competition.
“It was a very good result to start the year,” said Irish team manager Rodrigo Pessoa. “For a lot of the horses, it was their first time this season jumping on grass. We have to salute Paul O’Shea for his double clear round with Machu Picchu.
“The course wasn’t easy and the faults were spread out all over the course. Overall, it’s a very positive start for us, and our riders also had a very good show here in Samorin in the individual classes.”
Although his team was out of luck in the Nations Cup, German star Philip Weishaupt galloped to victory on the selle Français mare Asathir in the Longines grand prix, in which Shane Sweetnam (Indra Van De Oude Heihoef ) was sixth.
Sam Hutton and Holly
Smith, both of whom will be part of Britain’s Nations Cup squad at Linz this weekend, were in the money in world ranking classes.