Consistency is the key to Conor’s fame

Consistency is the key to Conor’s fame

24 October 2018

DARRAGH Cross showjumper Conor Swail was jumping for joy in America at the weekend.

Swail took the top prize in the $384,000 Rolex Grand Prix in North Carolina on Saturday.

Riding Rubens LS La Silla, a 12-year-old stallion, Swail claimed the massive prize after winning a three horse jump-off.

“My horse has had a great year so far and he was coming in here with a lot of confidence,” Swail said afterwards.

“I thought that the time was going to be a little bit of an issue for me in the first round, but thankfully I squeezed just inside it. It started off a little scratchy because we haven’t competed in five weeks. 

“The second half of the round he jumped beautifully. We squeezed just inside the time, but thankfully there weren’t many more in the jump-off.”

This latest win is just reward for Swail’s efforts and a long way from when he first entered the showjumping world.

It was with a gelding called Rivaal that his talent was exposed and together, the partnership quickly rose through the international rankings, with Grand Prix wins along with Nations Cup firsts in Lummen, Linz, Drammen, Paris and Athens. 

In 2007 he was selected as part of the Ireland Aga Khan Cup team at Dublin Horse Show, which had been a long-standing dream.

Two years later on a trip to the Netherlands he and business partner Barry O’ Connor spotted Lansdowne, a seven-year-old stallion. 

The pair came second in the World Cup and third in the Grand Prix in Toronto, which resulted in Swail being offered a lucrative position with Ontario-based owners.

In 2016 he scored one of his biggest career wins to date when he captured the RBC Bank $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix at the Spruce Meadows show in Canada. 

Last year he was part of the Irish team that won the Wellington Nations Cup in Florida for the third time and the second year in a row.