Slattery moves up to second in Connacht Grand Prix League

The sponsor for the leg was Hennelly’s Bar in Corrandulla and the course designer was Killian Clarke, and it was obvious that the show committee had gone to great lengths with its preparations for the day as the grass arena was in great shape for the competition.

There were 36 starters over an interesting course which included a Liverpool for the first time this year.  It took some time for the first clear round to show up but it eventually came via Jeff Malone and Butterfly Ambition who showed a clean set of heels over all the fences.

At the conclusion of the first round, 14 remained to go against the clock. The jump-off was a veritable slalom and necessitated many flying changes throughout.  First to jump was Thomas O’Brien with Valentino T who frisked across the fences characteristically shooting his tail into the air and with no faults broke the beam at 39.92 seconds.

He was followed by Gabriel Slattery with Diamond de Lux, and he also jumped a clear round in 39.92.  The pathfinder from the first round, Jeff Malone, was next up for the challenge but had a fence down.

Joseph O’Brien with What a Touch and Thomas O’Brien, this time with Amaretto, followed but had four faults apiece and then Stephen Moore shot into the lead with a faultless round in 39.15 on Newtown Jumping Jack.

The next clear round came from Jessica Burke and Woodfield Samenco, but their time of 39.30 didn’t knock Moore and Newtown Jumping Jack off the top spot.

That honour fell to Gabriel Slattery, who’s been sitting in both third and fourth places on the leaderboard but without an outright win until this one. His was a classy, clean, speedy performance on Captains Magic Touch and his time of 36.73 remained unchallenged.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.