Daniel Coyle capped a great weekend at the Winter Equestrian Festival by coming out on top in Sunday’s $50,000 Hollow Creek Farm U25 Grand Prix Finale at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida, and then going on to claim the $50,000 1m50 Suncast National Grand Prix.

Following on from his second place finish with Cita in Saturday night’s $216,000 Wanderers Club Grand Prix, Coyle came back for more yesterday, and after an eight-horse jump-off the Irish rider and Simba de la Roque (pictured) were fastest by over a second in the U25 contest.

Great Britain’s Jessica Mendoza and Horst Van de Mispeleare took second while American Shawn Casady claimed third on Vanilla.

Coyle then partnered Dillinger to victory in the national event, again ousting Mendoza (Constance), this time with a two-second margin of victory. Russian rider Liubov Kochetova was a further two seconds behind in third on Urus 2.

The Irish rider then received the Hermes Talented Young Rider Award which is given to the rider in the 16-25 age bracket who receives the most points in FEI competition during the 12-week-long Festival.

“I had a great last week, winning two classes with the young horses and a great second place finish in the Grand Prix, and today has been brilliant for me”, said Coyle.

He paid tribute to owners Susan and Ariel Grange for allowing him time to get the best out of their horses,

“It is an amazing feeling to leave a big show like this with some great wins. It feels incredible.”

Josh Tobin

(photo: Sportsfot)