Following five wins during June at Spruce Meadows in Canada, Derry’s Daniel Coyle has just added an early July victory to his tally with a first place this morning in the 1m50 West Canadian Cup.

Coyle was piloting Susan and Ariel Grange’s Selle Français stallion Grafton, the former ride of Co. Down’s Conor Swail, and was one of eight through to the jump-off at the five star show in Calgary, Alberta.

The Irish rider had a tight battle with the USA’s Kent Farrington, currently the Longines-ranked number one rider in the world, who came within five hundredths of a second of overtaking Coyle on another French-bred horse, the gelding Sherkan Damauray.

KentFarrington
Kent Farrington – world number one rider.

Israel’s Daniel Bluman, a favourite with Irish audiences following his flamboyant Puissance win at the Dublin Horse Show in 2013, came third at Spruce Meadows today with the Belgian-bred Bacara D Archonfosse.                                                                                                                         Jack Burns