Who needs the luck of the Irish when you already have the speed of Conor Swail and Nicky Galligan?
The Irish riders made sweeping the $37,000 Marshall & Sterling 1.50m CSI3* look easy on Friday at the Desert International Horse Park, with Swail taking the top two spots and Galligan finishing in third—and no one else outside of the top three coming within 5.86 seconds of Swail’s winning time.
“It was one of those rounds that everything worked well,” said Swail, who took the win aboard Theo 160, owned by Team Philippaerts. “If I had to do it again another 10 times, I don’t know how well he or me would have done it to be honest. I was very pleased. I just felt everything come up the way I wanted it to, and that doesn’t happen that often like it did today!”
Swail and Theo 160 were one of 33 entries to contest the speed track designed by fellow Irishman Alan Wade, but with everything coming up easily for them, they were the far-and-away front runners, stopping the clock in 60.93 seconds.
