'He has incredible energy'

Home-breds delight their riders with the top two spots in the grand prix and records are smashed in the puissance

- SARAH RADFORD, Jennifer Donald

Bolesworth International Equestrian Summer Festival presented by Al Shira’aa, Cheshire

SHANE BREEN rose to the challenge of a testing 1.55m Al Shira’aa grand prix with assurance, partnering the hot, home-bred grey Scarteen to the fastest of just three double clears.

Course-designer Javier Trenor Paz created a real challenge for the 48 starters – while poles dropped everywhere on his first-round track, a combination across the centre became such a bogey that the crowd applauded every time a rider negotiated it clear.

“When I walked the course, I thought it suited my guy but I had to be careful not to have a time-fault,” said Shane, one of only four clears in that first round. Tim Gredley and Olympic hopeful Imperial HBF also remained faultless, as did James Davenport (One To Watch) and Seamus Hughes Kennedy with his reigning young rider European champion, ESI Rocky. They were joined by nine others as 13 went through to the jump-off.

Tim was the first of the faultless to jump and again left the fences standing, but his lead was swiftly overturned by Shane. He set a pace three seconds slower than the fastest round, jumped by Ellen Whitaker and Korlenski who totalled eight faults.

James had shaken his head when asked if he could match Shane’s performance as he entered the ring, but he put in a brilliant bid on the home-bred mare One To Watch, finishing clear just 0.12sec behind Shane to slot into second place.

“I’m chuffed to bits,” he said. “The only one I saw go was Shane before me and he was so fast and so smooth.”

On tactics, when you’ve jumped one of just a handful of first-round clears, James added: “It’s a hard decision to know what to do. It’s happened so many times, I’ve thought, ‘I’ll do a good clear and get a good placing’ and then nicked a rail somewhere and ended up 12th. This time I thought, ‘I’ll just go as fast as I can!’”