Speirs shines on Irish-bred at Badminton

Kildare’s Camilla Speirs and her Irish-bred Portersize Just A Jiff produced a brilliant performance to record a top 10 finish at Badminton Horse Trials over the weekend as Germany’s Michael Jung was crowned the new Rolex Grand Salm of Eventing champion after claiming victory on La Biosthetique Sam FBW.

A spectacular clear cross-country on Saturday saw the Irish pair move up the ranks to 17th place and then posted a perfect show jumping display to take ninth place overall at the world-famous event. Crowd favourite 16-year-old Portersize Just A Jiff was by far the smallest horse in the competition, standing just over 15hh. Their best previous Badminton result was in 2010 when they finished 14th.

Portersize Just A Jiff is a traditional Irish Sport Horse gelding by the Connemara Pony stallion Crosskeys Rebel, out of the dam Mizen Talent (ISH) who is by Mizen Melody (TB) and was bred by Philip White from Co. Derry.

Thrilled

Speaking to The Irish Horse, Camilla Speirs said: “I am absolutely thrilled. He is in super form after Badminton, he cantered around his field, shaking his head, he knows he did well. I knew he was capable of it but he did not have the best preparation after Fontainebleau. He was a bit down and then came out thriving. It was a tough test, a true Badminton and the results across the board reflect that. It means so much to me and my family. My mother (Bridget) puts so much work into his fitness and groomed all week in Badminton. She’s a big influence on his fitness.” That work really showed when Speirs and Jiff only had 0.8 of a time penalty on the cross-country.

Mullingar-born Joseph Murphy finished in 28th place with DHI Topstory and filled 40th spot with his second mount, Sportsfield Othello (ISH). Limerick’s Michael Ryan and Ballylynch Adventure (ISH) finished in 30th place, while Sarah Ennis and BLM Diamond Delux came home in 34th.

Irish Eventing team manager Nick Turner said: “Camilla and Jiffy produced a copybook cross-country ride and again in the show jumping. It is great to see them back at their best and Jiffy is a real crowd favourite. All five Irish combinations were a credit to their riders and their support team and the horses owners. To have all five finish the three days, when so many didn’t finish, shows the strength in depth we have and proves the programs we have in place are delivering results. We now look forward to Chatsworth this weekend where we have 21 Irish entries in the three-star competition.”

Jung

However, Badminton belonged to Michael Jung who added the Badminton crown to his World, European and Olympic title wins. He guided La Biosthetique Sam to victory after leading the competition from start to finish to take the Grand Slam prize of $350,000.

Last to go, he went into the show jumping with two rails in hand overnight. Some 15,000 spectators held their breath as Jung went clear around the 13-fence course to take the win. In second place was Germany’s Andreas Ostholt riding So Is Et while third place went to Britain’s Gemma Tattersall riding the Irish-bred Artic Soul.