Shane Breen Takes Fourth Win on Home Ground

Shane Breen (IRL) finished a superb Hickstead season in style when claiming the £6,000 All England Grand Prix last weekend, with the nine-year-old stallion Clyde VA.

A total of 74 starters came forward for the Grand Prix, which is the feature class of this four-day national championships. A total of eight combinations jumped clear in the first round.

First to go was Breen Equestrian stable jockey Georgia Tame, who set a target of 48.30sec, but next to go Shane managed to shave more than 4sec off her time to take the lead.

The in-form Yazmin Pinchen almost secured her third 1.40m win in the space of four days but had to settle for second place with Van De Vivaldi, having finished 0.13 sec slower than Shane.

This summer Shane Breen has won the Bunn Leisure Derby Trial and the British Speed Classic with Can Ya Makan, who was also third in the Al Shira’aa Derby, and he was victorious with Clyde VA in the Hickstead Masters’ Trophy. He is married to Chloe Breen, the daughter of Hickstead founder Douglas Bunn, and is based at Hickstead Place so this is his home show.

Today’s win was also an ideal final run for Shane before he heads to Tryon, having had a late call up to the Irish showjumping team of four for the FEI World Equestrian Games.

You don’t think he’s very quick and he’s a bit lazy, but he’s got such a long stride,”

said Shane of his winning ride.

When he won at the June show I didn’t think he had a chance and that surprised me, but having won that class I knew he could do it today.”

Quite a number of riders failed to complete the course in the Grand Prix, with Hickstead’s famous open water causing the majority of the issues.

It was a good course, not overly big, fair but with plenty of little questions,” said Shane. “It was a good class, and a good result!”

Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.