Equestrian Sport News round-upThe green coat of Ireland headed the line-up at Hickstead yesterday, but it was eventer Mark Kyle who led the lap of honour, not a show jumper.

Kyle, who was part of the Irish three-day event team at the Athens Olympics last summer, threw caution to the winds and galloped Drunken Disorderly round the combined show jumping and cross-country course to lift the honours in the Ford Ranger Eventing Grand Prix, leaving two former Badminton winners - Chris Bartle and William Fox-Pitt - in his wake.

Kyle picked up a year's use of a Ford Ranger jeep for the win, commenting afterwards: "I can put the wife in the back of it!" His wife, Tanya, who campaigned the big grey Drunken Disorderly until smashing her arm in a fall, is sidelined again, this time after breaking her leg and cracking her pelvis in a schooling fall at home last Thursday.

The show jumpers proper will be hoping Kyle's victory is a good omen for this afternoon's Nations Cup. Struggling to make up ground in the Samsung Super League, they have at least been given the advantage of a last-to-go draw.

Chef d'equipe Eamon Rice has put Cian O'Connor and Waterford Crystal in as pathfinders for this afternoon's contest. O'Connor, who rode ABC Landliebe into third in the morning's opening speed class, is making his first team appearance since his three-month suspension ended. Shane Breen (World Cruise) starts in the number two slot, followed by Marie Burke (Chippison), with Denis Lynch (Domingo) as anchorman.

Burke was in the money at the Sussex showgrounds yesterday, steering her Nations Cup ride Chippison into sixth place in the morning's Refco Chase. Shane Breen and World Cruise also featured in the line-up in ninth.

Meanwhile, Jessica Kurten, who is remaining tight-lipped about the reasons behind her sudden withdrawal from the team for Dublin next week, rode the mare Castle Forbes Libertina into third place in a speed class at the Spanish show in La Coruna.