Edward Doyle wa snext returning with his second ride for the class, this time aboard the McLoughlin Bros Midnight Call and perhaps Edward has been spending too much time with drought affected Australians because again there were issues at the open water fence and Edward decided to retire to fight again another day!
Conor Swail and the previous day's winning horse, Conduct were not repeat themsleves today after a super round which saw just a toe in the water leaving them with four faults today, which at the rate the class was shaping up was going to see him with a minor placing with four faults as clear rounds were as scarce as the proverbial "hens teeth"!
John Floody returned to the arena on his second ride for the class, Denis Finn's Peninsula Cherubin 8 and they traveled a super tour of the course coming through the finish flags with no jumping or time penalties and again the crowd showed their appreciation of this super effort - so now we had three for the jump off!
James Kernan and the son of Touchdown, Out of Touch chose to retire after a fence down as this was obviously not going to be their day and now we had two to go.
Eddie Maloney, not long out of hospital after recovering from an appendics operation with complications rode a super round on John Widger's Kilmoylan Warrior and came through the finish with no faults to join the jump off and last to go was Lt. David O'Brien on the Minister for Defence's Carraig Dubh, which for those not fluent in Irish, means Black Rock which I am guessing is probably where the horse was bred - sounds much more romantic in Irish I have to admit!
Lt. O'Brien was the last to go and with his classical and carefull clear round we had five through to the jump off, much to the relief of Course Designer, Frank Glynn and with the five through to the jump of it was going to be competitive and that was guaranteed!
First to go in the jump off was Killybegs Schubert with James Kernan (pictured below left) in the saddle and he jumped a neat round finsihing with just four faults in a time of 37.45secs and this was beatable but not going to be easy to beat.
Lt. Brian Curran Cournane was next to go and this was an exciting result with Brian finishing also with four faults and just one hundreth of a second behind James Kernan with a time of 37.46secs on River Boyne (pictured below right)
Third out for the jump off was John Floody and Peninsula Cherubin 8 and they were really unlucky to have a rail down when the horse did a massive kickback after a huge effort to get over the fence and they too finished with four faults in 38secs leaving them at this stage in 3rd position.
Eddie Maloney was next to go with Kilmoylan Warrior (pictured below right) and to the delight of the huge crowd now watching with baited breath they jumped a super clear round in 39.76secs - and that put them in the lead but there was still one to go and that was Lt David O'Brien with the well traveled and multi sashed Minister for Defences Carraig Dubh (pictured below left) and to the delight of the crowd they jumped a super clear round in the great time of 36.56secs to take out the class and the points for the Super League.
A great class with five super competitors taking it right to the line - and as Lt. O'Brien came through the finish flags the rain which had been threatening to fall most of the afternoon finally came down in an almighty hurry leaving the presentation to be done in very wet conditions - but this was better than jumping in the wet conditions so all was well in the end.
