Dublin Horse Show was nearing its close but there was still a buzz around the rounds as the Grand Prix track was walked by the 36 riders who were to begin in this class. Unfortunately the weather had deteriorated quicky and the place was decidedly WET! Apparently what Ireland copped that day was the tail end of an American hurricane - and how fitting that was to be by the end of this class.

Uliano Vezzani obviously decided to make sure he was remembered by the riders at Dublin and he created a track which was going to cause issues - nobody realised just how many issues though. We chatted with Uliano before the start of the class and asked how many clears he predicted and he thought that between 5 and 8 combinations would go clear.

It was a big track where everything stood between 1.50m for the verticles to oxers which were all 1.55m/1.60m with most of them dead square and Vezzani added to the heights a very very technical track which would take jumping of excellence in dry conditions - in the wet the track required sheer brilliance on the part of both rider and horse - the cups were flat, the rails light and we were going to see some carnage.

The lines predicted to cause the issues were exactly the ones which did - fence 6 was definitely the nastiest fence on course - a narrow gate with a square rail which hung on totally flat cups coming off a huge very square oxer complete with christmas trees waving underneath it in the blustery conditions and then it was a forward 4 strides or a quiet 5 strides to the narrow gate and as if this didn't test the riders enough they then had to angle their way to the combination at 7 which was vertical, oxer, oxer testing the scope of the horse with 1 stride, 2 strides.

As if this wasn't hard enough the riders then faced 6 normal strides to fence 8 wich was another difficult fence having the water tray at the back of the fence with just three poles, drawing the horses eye down to the water. If the riders were through to fence 8 they could not relax yet as there were still many traps on their way through to the finish flags as by the time they got to the end the horses would be exhausted from jumping this track wich required them to be on the ball the entire way around the course with no let up at any point - but this should be expected as Dublin Horse Show is one of the three top shows in the world for showjumping horses and riders and we were just one week from the Olympic Games with many of these riders heading to Athens this very evening after the last fanfare was played.

First out of the starters blocks for the Samsung International Grand Prix was Marion Hughes and her 9 year old Cavalier Royale gelding, Heritage Transmission who has been doing very well throughout the season but today was not to be their day with two fences down.

Richard Davenport for Great Britain was the next out riding Martin Dawes oldenburg mare, Laguina and they came through the finish flags with one rail down but collected 1 time penalty for their care finishing with 5 penalties. Germany's Alois Pollmann-Schwechkorst was next to try and defeat the course but he returned with 8 penatlies on the 10 year olod rheinland gedling Diamonds Daylight and the 8 faults continued for Jean-Marc Nicolas for France and Scott Smith for Great Britain.

Bert Prouve and Reggi Roosters Van Betz for Belgium cam ehome with 12 faults as did Lauren Hough and Clasiko. John Whitaker and Exploit du Roulade, who had worked so hard the previous day in the Puissance to take equal first place again tried his best but came home with 4 faults.

The track proved too testing for Italy's Luca Carini and D'Artagnan when they came through the finish flags with 24 faults and Belgium's Koen Vereecke and Qualite vd Begijnakker finished up with 16 faults. Florian Meyer zu Hartum and Waldrose broke the finish beam with 8 faults and Emile Tacken clocked up 12 faults with Miss Montana. Billy Twomey opted to retire Luidam who had performed so superbly to clinch the Aga Khan Cup for Ireland just days before - and no doubt Athens was in his mind when he tipped his hat to the Judges and left the arena.

Captain Shane Carey for Irelnd, with the Ministry for Defence's Clover Hill gelding Killossery jumped a super round to finish with just four faults, which over this track was beginning to get the same response from thepacked stadium as a clear round would normally warrant. Capt. Carey collected his four faults so close to the end when fence 11 fell leaving just 3 more jumping efforts till the finish!

The half way mark saw Nick Skelton and the "machine" Arko enter the arena and everyone had their money on this horse jumping clear and in fact he is favourite with the bookies for the Athens Gold medal - but as they say with horses "it is never over until the fat lady sings" and in this case Arko stunned the stadium, and Nick when he tooka dislike to the oxer at fence 5 and put in an unexpected stop giving Nick a refusal but the place took on a stunned silence when the 10 year old stallion then refused to go anywhere near the fence and they left the arena with the stigma of elimination next to their names on the score sheet - this was a total shock as the horse has only done this once before, early in his International career.

Left we see Jean-Marc Nicolas for France going over fence 5 which was the beginning of thr troubles on this track - JPC Modesto Equifoam cleared it easily but 5 combinations weren't that lucky bringing this fence to the ground.

Below we see Marion Hughes and Heritage Transmission at fence 6 which was the most vicious fence on the course taking a massive 15 combinations as victims to this fence falling. The fence alone was nasty enough but the approach from fence 5 saw 4 forward or 5 quiet strides.

So after the shock of Arko's elimination we saw Patrice Delaveau for France opt to retire after he lowered fences four and 10 - the last run home was tough and the audience applauded his decision to leave without completing.

Jessica Kurten was next out and the crowd were hushed as they hoped she might give them the first clear on this course with her 10 year old mare Quibell and she was so close until she dropped the very tall vertical which was 12b coming from 12a, a tall and square oxer and one stride!

Molly Ashe for the USA was another who opted to retire when she had 7b down and a refusal at 7c - the crowd appreciated these riders who put the horses welfare first and when they retired they did so as hero's to the crowd, who recognised just how tough this course was.

American teammate, Sheila Burke and the 12 year old Carthago daughter, Caya were determined to go clear and they lloked like they were going to do it - the crowd held their breath each time a rail rattled, but everything stayed in place and the excitement rose as she came to the last fence, number 13 with no faults and all looked good until they laned on the far side of the huge pillars with rustic rails and the pole thudded to the ground leaving them with 4 faults!

So we were up to the 21st combination out of 39 to go and still no clear round.........Italy's Piergiorgio Bucci left with 12 faults, as did Ireland's Clem McMahon. Germany's Heinrich-Hermann Engemann faired a little better leaving with 8 faults and Dermott Lennon and I Caesar opted for retirement after dropping just too many rails to be in the race.

Trevor Coyle collected just two rails for Ireland and Harry Marshall also for Ireland was another who opted for retirement. Robert Smith and Marius Claudius for Great Britain took 3 fences for 12 faults.

Germany's Rene Tebbel was another feeling pretty good when he came through the finish flags with just 4 faults when the dreaded fence 6, (pictured above) fell. Lauren Goffinet and the super Flipper D'elle were another combination to take out fence 6 and they added fence 8 to finish with 8 faults and Wout-Jan Van der Schans were another combination to opt for retirement and Italy's Alessia Marioni finished with 8 faults.

Phillippe Lejeune left with 8 jumping faults and collected 1 time fault along their way and Peter Smythe and Zara's Pride were another combination to retire, while Dave Quigley for Ireland left with 12 faults as did Judy Garofalo for USA and now we had just 3 combinations left and still we were looking for a clear round!

Left we see Arko and Nick Skelton before they got eliminated as they went over fence 1 and showed a clean pair of heels!

Below we see Captain Shane Carey and Killossery who completed with just the four faults. This is a combination who have been on fire this season and I am sure that they were disappointed not to have had a place on the Nations Cup team a couple of days before - they have certainly clocked up the results which would have justified a place.