The second round of the Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) Premier Series took place at Portmore Equestrian in Co Armagh last Sunday with Co Monaghan’s Clem McMahon jumping straight to the top of the leader board when he took victory with Irish Sport Horse Hilton Pacato.
This win comes after a runner-up finish for the pair at the first round of the series at Barnadown. Hilton Pacato is by Pacino (BWP) out of Cavalier Lagan (ISH) and was bred by Peter Rice, who is also a Monaghan man.
Of the 26 starters, just four of these combinations managed to jump clear in the first round. McMahon was first to go in the jump-off and having no path finder to follow, he went in all guns blazing.
The Hilton Farm-owned 12-year-old showed great balance and scope as Clem rode hands and heels to the last and took the win with a clear jump-off round in 36.39 seconds.
The only other double clear went to Tipperary’s Greg Broderick with Coolivio PS who took the runner-up spot in a time of 43.62.
Kenneth Graham and Beir Bua (ISH) had one fence down in the second round to finish third, while Deane Rogan and De L’ Oiseliere took fourth place. Capt. Geoff Curran and Glengarra Wood (ISH) missed out on the jump-off after picking up a time fault to finish fifth while the fastest four fault score from the first round went to Paul Carberry and Brandonview First Edition to take sixth place.
The third round of the HSI Premier Series takes place at Balmoral on 11 July.
Clean sweep for Derwin
On Saturday, at the same venue, Athlone’s Francis Derwin landed his second win of the Gain Alltech National Grand Prix league on board Deep Pockets. His first win in the league came at the beginning of May on board AHG Whiterock Cruise Down at Barnadown.
The 12-year-old gelding Deep Pockets is owned by Francis’ uncle Jim Derwin and is by O.B.O.S Quality 004 out of Simply Chic (Cruising).
To add to this win, Derwin also took the runner-up spot with his own Killerisk Can Ya, a nine-year-old gelding bred by Maura Counihan, by Can Ya Makan out of R Umonia 14 (Mermus R).