Published: Wednesday, 11th August, 2010 4:56pm

Dublin victory for Ward Union Hunt

by John Donohoe

The Ward Union Hunt chase team chef d'equipe Pat Prenderville with Ian Donoghue, Sarah Maxwell, Jim Harford and Colm O'Dwyer.
Pic by==: 97

The much-maligned Ward Union Hunt may not have too many friends in Leinster House at the moment, but further up the road at the RDS in Ballsbridge at the weekend, they recorded a victory in Dublin.

The hunt's team took the top prize in the Hunt Chase competition which marks the end of the Failte Ireland Dublin Horse Show.

They beat neighbours the Fingal Harriers in the semi-final and the Wexford Hunt in the final.

The team, led by chef d'equipe Pat Prenderville, was made up of Ian Donoghue, Sarah Maxwell, Jim Harford and Colm O'Dwyer, and was managed by Davitt Dunne, with Hugh and Pat Leonard also on the management team.

On Saturday, Tara-based Cian O'Connor and Yves Chauvin's French-bred gelding Noctambule Courcelle carried the Irish flag through to the podium when finishing joint-first in the Puissance alongside Venezuela's Pablo Barrios.

The two riders were the last left standing after the giant wall gradually defeated the rest of the 14 starters, but in the final jump-off with the wall standing at 2.15m, neither rider was able to jump clear and so shared the €19,700 first prize.

O'Connor was on the Irish team that finished equal second in the final Meydan Nations' Cup of 2010 on Friday on a total of 20 faults.

The result cemented Ireland's place in the Meydan Superleague for 2011, with points accumulated over this year's eight legs putting them in a creditable fourth place overall of the world's top 10 teams.

Clear rounds from Billy Twomey and Tinka's Serenade, O'Connor riding K Club Lady and Denis Lynch with Nabab's Son pushed Ireland up into joint-second place with the USA, but neither nation could catch an in-form Netherlands quartet.

The Dutch needed a prime result at Dublin to avoid relegation and produced their best performance of the year to finish in first place with just four faults.

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