Thermal, CA – January 25, 2025 – Spectators can almost always count on Ireland’s Conor Swail and Count Me In to be top contenders to watch, and that certainly proved to be the case on Saturday, January 25, as the pair rode to victory in the $45,000 CSI2* PRO Series Equine Grand Prix at Desert Circuit 3.
After finishing Thursday’s $32,000 CSI2* Welcome Speed with an uncharacteristic eight faults at the end of the course, Swail returned to the Desert International Horse Park’s Grand Prix Arena ready to give “Crosby” a solid, confidence-building ride in Saturday’s class.
“This is [Crosby’s] first week out [for 2025],” said Swail. “He’s had a nice little break. I thought I would start him off in the 2* just to get him comfortable. He was beautiful all week. We jumped a lovely round in the 1.40m, and then we had a beautiful round in the speed class until I made an error in judgment and made a big mistake on him. We had a big fault there. So, it was very nice for him that he sort of put it behind him and jumped two lovely rounds today.”
As one of eight entries that advanced to jump-off over the Bernardo Costa Cabral-designed course, Swail and Count Me In stopped the clock in 36.52 seconds. While the round was quick and clear, Swail was only the second rider to return for the short course, and he knew it was still very much anyone’s game.
“I had a good plan with my numbers even though I was early to go,” said Swail. “It was mainly just about trying to keep him comfortable the whole way around…I was a bit slow in 10 [strides] to the last. I think there was definitely one less there, but again just to keep him happy and comfortable, I decided to do the 10 after the mistake I had made the other day. I wanted it just to be smooth. Honestly, I didn’t feel it was going to be the winning round. I knew Erynn [Ballard] could catch me easily enough. She has a very nice eight-year-old there. I knew it’s big step could catch me. Luckily for me, it wasn’t her day today. It was my day – myself and Crosby – so it was great.”
While Swail did prove correct in that Ballard and Chatadel PS had the time, a rail down relegated the duo to fifth place with four faults in 34.94 seconds. Finishing in fourth place with a time of 40.92 seconds was Christopher Lowe aboard Cunningham 4, and fellow Canadian Vanessa Mannix took home third with a time of 38.62 seconds aboard Valentino D’elte. Coming within tenths of a second of catching Swail, with a time of 36.76 seconds, were second place finishers Peter Petschenig and his own It’s the Senator 111.
“[Crosby] enjoys it here,” concluded Swail. “He had a great winter here last year. He won a three-star and a four-star grand prix…He’ll probably do the three-star or the four-star later on in the tour. I wanted to bring him out just to give him a little run around just to make sure he was comfortable. He’ll be back!”
For full results of the $45,000 CSI2* PRO Series Equine Grand Prix, click here.
