OCALA, Fla.-- Cian OConnor on Fermoy (PPhoto by Andrew Ryback)Ireland’s Cian O’Connor on Fermoy won the $62,500 Winning Round CSIO5* in a 10 horse jump-off on Friday, March 22 during the League of Nations at the World Equestrian Center.

From the first round, the top 10 were to return for the jump-off, with all in the jump-off starting on zero faults, no matter how many faults they'd had in the first round.

The starting field of 34 competed over a course set by Irish course designer Alan Wade.

As the second to go in the jump-off, O’Connor on Fermoy, a 10-year-old Oldenburg stallion was clean and set what turned out to be the unbeatable time to beat of 44.76 seconds.

Two-time Canadian Olympian Tiffany Foster on Kadans was the only other rider to go clean in the jump-off, finishing in 45.78 seconds to place second.

 As the last to go, Richard Vogel, 26 of Germany, had the fastest time of 41 seconds flat, but a rail down left him third on Cydello, a 10-year-old Hanoverian gelding.

 

“WE KNEW that 10 go back for the second round, so I took my time with Fermoy in the opening round,” said O’Connor. “He jumped very nice. I picked up a time fault the first round but as everyone’s going back on zero, the only disadvantage was being early in the draw. That worked out okay, because I think a lot of the guys tried to go too quick in the second round. The fences were big enough that they ended up having a rail.”

“Fermoy’s a bit of a character,"said O'Connor of the horse he recently acquired from Germany’s Maurice Tebbel. "He’s a very easy horse to ride. He’s very brave, has huge scope, is really careful and fast. I’ve basically been trying to tame him and work with him over the last five months since I’ve had him. I was happy to have the opportunity to go against the clock and let him travel a little bit, and you can see that he answers the questions and nearly goes a foot higher. I couldn’t be happier with him.”