![\"7](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024d034-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCian O’Connor in action on Kentucky<\/p>\n
The USA edged Ireland to lift the Aga Khan trophy after a dramatic day at the RDS in the 100th edition of the Nations Cup.<\/p>\n
A nail-biting competition went right down the wire, with a clear round from 2025 Dublin Grand Prix winner Laura Kraut proving the vital score for the Americans.<\/p>\n
The 100th Aga Khan at the Dublin Horse Show was also historic in that it saw the first time that two brothers featured on the same Irish team.<\/p>\n
First to go in the competition was 31-year-old Daniel Coyle from Co Derry riding Farrel and he gave Ireland the perfect start with a clear round.<\/p>\n
He was followed by his older brother Jordan Coyle, 33, with Chaccolino. He also jumped clear to keep Ireland on a zero score.<\/p>\n
When Ireland’s third combination, Cork’s Shane Sweetnam with Coriaan Van Klapscheut Z, went round clear, anchor rider Cian O’Connor didn’t need to jump in the first round.<\/p>\n
Heading into the second round, Ireland were joined on a zero score by 2024 winners the USA, while Britain were in second on two time faults, just ahead of Switzerland in fourth of the eight teams competing.<\/p>\n
\nCian O’Connor in action on Kentucky<\/p>\n
The second round saw both Coyle brothers complete outstanding double clear performances as Ireland remained fault free. The USA kept pace, as their first two riders also jumped clear second time out.<\/p>\n
However the third USA rider, Natalie Dean, picked up four faults and that was quickly followed by the same four-fault score by Ireland’s third rider Sweetnam.<\/p>\n
Kraut, who won the Grand Prix of Ireland in 2025 with the only clear round of the competition, was last to jump for the USA and she delivered a vital clear meaning the competition was either destined for a jump-off or a win for the USA.<\/p>\n
Having not had to jump in the first round with his horse Kentucky TN, O’Connor came into the arena as last to go for what would be his 20th cap as an Aga Khan team member.<\/p>\n
However when he finished with four faults, victory went to the USA, while Ireland had to settle for runner-up spot. Switzerland filled third place on the podium on eight faults ahead of Germany in fourth, and Britain in fifth. Belgium were sixth, last year’s winners Netherlands seventh and France eighth.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s highlight at the Dublin Horse Show will be the Defender Puissance as horse and rider take on the big red wall.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Dublin Horse Show will come to a close on Sunday with the \u20ac1m Rolex Grand Prix of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USA edged Ireland to lift the Aga Khan trophy after a dramatic day at the RDS in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-586392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}