O'Connor's hard work bears fruit in Olympia
Sunday December 27 2009
There is always an edge about Olympia. It is very much a British institution, a grand exhibition hall built during Queen Victoria's long reign, and though in regular use for other purposes, its Christmas International Horse Show has become the flagship event.
The British show jumpers regard it very much as their own turf, and are used to victories there, with the support of a partisan audience. It is also one of the biggest horse shows in the world, attracting the cream of the international show jumping world.
So it is not often that Irish riders come home from Olympia covered in laurels. Cian O'Connor was this year on only his third visit to the hallowed Olympia arena, and then only by personal invitation from the show's organisers.
O'Connor is a hard worker, running a string of international horses out of Paul Darragh's old yard at Waterside Stud near Ashbourne, Co Meath, and travelling the world from one year's end to the next on the Grand Prix circuit.
O'Connor took four horses to Olympia this year, the most prominent being the dark bay gelding Rancorrado, bought for him by Aileen Bryan, originally a Co Kildare neighbour of the rider, two years ago.
Rancorrado has appeared for Ireland in Nations' Cup team events with O'Connor in the saddle, but is still relatively green at Grand Prix level, with not as many miles under his belt as a lot of the horses which appeared at Olympia this year.
He also brought Irish Independent Echo Beach, Splendor and Calista to London, and as the four days of Olympia ticked by, and each horse delivered a placing in the top three of its competition, interest mounted over the 30-year-old's ambitions in the two signature classes of the show.
These would be the Sunday night World Cup Qualifier competition, and the Monday night Olympia Grand Prix. Both involved two rounds of jumping at the very highest world level, and to some people's surprise, O'Connor entered Rancorrado for both.
It is unusual for a horse to be asked to jump, potentially, four rounds of extremely high fences on difficult courses over two consecutive nights, but the Irishman, known for his meticulous planning and competition strategy, felt it could be done.
When Rancorrado went clear in the first round of the World Cup Qualifier, he was just one of 11 horses to do so, and when he went clear in the second round, Irish hopes soared that a victory might be within sight.
Not one of the other 10 horses managed to beat Rancorrado's second-round time until the Dutchman Eric van der Vleuten, second-last to jump, shaved a half second off O'Connor's time, relegating him to the runner-up spot.
It was still a major triumph for the Irishman, and proved that Rancorrado had the ability to take on the best in the world. It was also a triumph for Irish show jumping, producing for it a result that because of its time and location, would resonate around the world.
On Monday night, in front of a capacity crowd and the BBC's cameras, Rancorrado jumped his first round without a fault, even though O'Connor uncharacteristically lost his left stirrup two fences from home, a slip-up that usually will unbalance a rider, and frequently causes the horse to clip a fence.
To say that tension was mounting within the Irish camp would be something of an understatement. The last Irish rider to win the Olympia Grand Prix had been Eddie Macken in 1987 on legendary Welfenkrone.
O'Connor was one of just six riders to qualify for the jump-off, the final decider of Grand Prix victory. Another was Eric van der Vleuten, who, like O'Connor, had decided to field the same horse that had won him the World Cup Qualifier the night before.
There was one crucial difference on Monday night, though. This time, Rancorrado was faster. And no one else came close.
"You cannot imagine how I feel tonight -- first of all to be invited by the organisers, for which I am very grateful, and then to compete with, take on and beat some of the best horse and rider combinations in the world," said O'Connor afterwards. "It's a very nice Christmas present for myself, my staff, and for Rancorrado's owner, Aileen Bryan. I'm really overjoyed."
And well he might be.
Originally published in
