While the Irish European gold medal-winning squad of Bertram Allen, Mark McAuley, Denis Lynch, Shane Sweetnam and Cian O'Connor were being crowned team of the year at Saturday night's RTE Sports Awards, the first-named won the 1.55m jump-off class in London's Olympia stadium.
Allen, the only Irish representative in the 22-strong competition, was one of 10 riders who got through to the jump-off round where five remained unpenalised.
The Wexford man went away with the honours when home clear in 30.76 on Gin Chin van het Lindenhof, an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding which is owned by the Allen family’s Ballywalter Bloodstock. The Netherlands’ Harrie Smolders finished second with Cas (31.14) while Simon Delestre of France slotted into third with Gain Line (32.63).
“Harrie was very fast so I knew I really had to nail it to beat him,” said Allen. “This is a relatively new horse for me. He came from (Germany’s) Marcus Ehning so it’s very well-schooled and I’ve already had a bit of success with it. It’s an exciting horse.”
The rider stated that he would compete on Gin Chin van het Lindenhof in the Grand Prix at Olympia on Monday with Molly Malone V being his nominated ride for Sunday’s Longines FEI World Cup class at the traditional pre-Christmas show.
