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Britain Makes It a Hat-Trick at Ballindenisk

The winning British team (from left to right): Izzy Taylor, Oliver Townend, Wills Oakden and Franky Reid-Warillow, with Chef d’Equipe Philip Surl (front). (Tony Parkes/FEI)

Lausanne (SUI), 25 April, 2016 – Great Britain made it three wins in a row at Ballindenisk (IRL), the second leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2016. The home team finished second and a valiant French quartet, who had again made the long journey to this friendly Co Cork venue, came a close third.

As a result, Ireland and France, respectively third and second at Fontainebleau (FRA) last month, now jointly head the 2016 FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing leaderboard. Britain, who could only finish sixth in the French leg, is in third place ahead of Fontainebleau winners Germany.

Britain has a policy of choosing from a pool of younger riders who have not yet been on a senior team, but last-minute changes to the squad resulted in the experienced Oliver Townend, a former European team gold medallist and CCI4* winner, being sent out as pathfinder. He finished second in the individual classification on Cooley SRS behind his compatriot Pippa Funnell on Mirage d’Elle.

FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing first-timers Franky Reid-Warrilow, who finished in individual third place on Dolley Whisper, and Wills Oakden (Merikano, 15th) joined team stalwart Izzy Taylor (Briarlands Birdsong, 16th) who was, unusually, the discard score after incurring 11 penalties for breaking a frangible pin.

Joseph Murphy finished best of the Irish team, in sixth place on his experienced horse Sportsfield Othello, and Geoffroy Soullez, a regular member of France’s FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing squad, was the highest placed for his country, in ninth place on Madiran Du Liot.

Britain led from the start, and kept their advantage despite Townend and Oakden incurring 20 Jumping faults between them, but Ireland and France swapped places after Dressage when Matthieu Vanlandeghem incurred 14 Jumping penalties on Safran Du Chanois ENE HN. However, neither team was able to overhaul the Team GB for Cross Country speed – their only time penalties, just 0.8, came from Reid-Warrilow.

The FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing action moves next month to Houghton Hall (GBR), where the British will be hoping to regain supremacy on home ground, having lost to Germany last year and New Zealand in 2014.

Full results on www.eventingireland.com.

The FEI’s team Eventing series, the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing, is open to all nations fielding one team composed of 3 or 4 riders at each leg, and runs under FEI Eventing rules at CICO and CCIO 3* level with riders accumulating points under a dedicated system detailed here.

Visit the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing series hub here for rules, results and Organiser details.

FEI Media Contacts:

Grania Willis
Director Press Relations
grania.willis@fei.org
+41 787 506 142

Leanne Williams
Manager Press Relations
leanne.williams@fei.org
+41 79 314 24 38

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