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Irish domination in Falsterbo Derby

Saturday, 15 July 2017
CSIO5* Falsterbo 2017

Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.
Bertram Allen and Christy Jnr won Falsterbo Derby. Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.

It was Irish domination in the traditional Falsterbo Derby: Bertram Allen won the class with Christy Jnr (Indoctro x Clinton I), Shane Sweetnam ended second and Cian O'Connor third – after an exciting four-horse jump-off.

“A few year’s ago I was here with Romanov and was also clear in the derby, but tried to go to fast in the jump-off. So it was nice to get it right this time. Christy is only eight and it wouldn’t be a typical class for such a small age, but he has such a brilliant mind. He doesn’t care about anything and he always tries his best. He wants to do the right thing and he is fast. He was a bit inexperienced yesterday in the qualifier, and he learned from that and today he was perfect,” Bertram said after the victory.

Fourteen riders lined up for the class, and four of them cleared the difficult and demanding derby track – three Irish and one Swedish. Bertram Allen was first to go in the jump-off, and he went all in from the first to the last fence finishing in 49.31 seconds.

The second rider in the ring was Peder Fredricson (SWE), and he showed off his eventing skills with H&M Carat Desire (Carinjo x Latus II) and slotted in slightly behind Allen in 49.62 seconds but with four faults he eventually had to settle for 4th place.

Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.
Shane Sweetnam and Indra van de Oude Heihoef flying over the fences. Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.

Shane Sweetnam and the well jumping Indra van de Oude Heihoef (Casantos x Action-Breaker) gave their all, but went into runner-up position with a time of 50.02 seconds. Last to go Cian O’Connor and Copain du Perchet CH (Conteur x Ragazzo) – the winners of Friday’s Derby qualification – couldn’t quite catch the leading time with their 51.20 seconds and took the third place.

“I think these Derby competitions are good classes, and here in Falsterbo it is a great tradition and it is very good prize money. There are so many shows around the world that are very generic, there are sand arenas with all the same jumps and it is a bit boring. So it is very good that Falsterbo keeps this tradition and I come here especially trained for the derby. We came here to aim for this class, we didn’t come here and hope they might jump it,” third placed Cian O'Connor said.

“I was second last year as well, and my horse isn’t really a derby horse," said Sweetnam. "It is great money in this class and we Irish love this kind of classes. From when we are eight years old we start to do derbies on national level. I trained her at home and she was perfect, so she was the right horse to bring. If she hadn’t done the training good I wouldn’t have brought her, since it wouldn’t have been fair to her. As you can see she enjoyed this," Sweetnam continued about Indra van de Oude Heihoef.

Shane got the question about where he lost the jump-off: “When Bertram entered the class!" Shane answered with a laugh. "I went pretty fast and honestly I did my plan but it just wasn’t enough. In my head I thought it was enough, but Bertram didn’t leave much open."


Text and pictures © World of Showjumping



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