Farrington’s flight pays off and Swail makes up for lost ground

American Kent Farrington’s flight to Europe with his superb team of horses paid off when he collected the Irish Trophy and €66,000 in the Longines Grand Prix of Ireland.

Alan Wade's testing track saw faulters and retirements early in the first round, but Ireland's Conor Swail on Grand Cru delivered that elusive first clear round. Seven further clears were achieved as riders had time to clue up on the more difficult fences.

Swail made up for being dropped from Friday's Aga Khan squad by finishing third and winning the leading international and leading Irish rider awards. US rider Lucy Davis on Barron went clear with Kevin Babington on Shorapor making it through to the jump-off.

Despite a valiant attempt by Swail to win, his time of 46.35 was bettered by Babington showing a clean pair of heels in 45.75, while Davis tipped the first part of the Longines double in 45.52.

‘Winning machine’

Swail was delighted with his placing as leading international rider and leading Irish but was first to admit that beating Farrington is not simple. “He’s a winning machine, he doesn’t know how to lose and it’s very difficult when he’s in a class and gets it all right.”

Co Down's Dermott Lennon galloped to victory on Sunday to win his third international class of the Dublin Horse Show, the Clayton Hotel Speed Championship, relegating German Hans Dieter Dreher into second place with Quiwi Dream by a fraction of a second.

Sameh El Dahan, who rides for Joanne Sloan Allen's showjumping team, rocked the main arena on Saturday evening when he cleared 7ft 3 on a borrowed horse to take the Land Rover Puissance in a nailbiting finish.

Earlier, El Dahan and Seapatrick Cruise Cavalier finished third in the International Riders and Pony Pairs relay with Amy Reape on her pony Tullibards Highly Likely.

Omagh's Jenny Rankin pulled out the stops to win Sunday's six-year-old Cruising National Final from a nine-horse jump off.