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Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint finished second at the Badminton Horse Trials. Pam Cunningham

Irish amateur stuns eventing world with runner-up finish at Badminton

Lucy Latta is dreaming of the Olympics after her runner-up finish at the Badminton Horse Trials.

IRISH AMATEUR EVENTER Lucy Latta completed the performance of a lifetime on Sunday to finish second at the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials in England.

Enniscorthy’s Latta, 27, and her horse RCA Patron Saint came within a whisker of landing Ireland’s first win at the event in 59 years but were just edged out by New Zealand’s Caroline Powell.

Despite a slow start in the dressage phase, Latta started the day in third place overall thanks to a sensational performance in Saturday’s cross-country phase, where she was easily the best in the field with just 0.4 time faults.

And she completed the job on Sunday with eight faults in the showjumping phase good enough for a total of 45.2 penalties and second place behind Powell (43.2).

“What a week. I’d have bitten your hand off if you told me this would have happened at the start of the week,” she said.

Latta — who is the cousin of Grand National-winning jump jockey Robbie Power — added: “I can dream about the Olympics, I would love to think I could go.

“My horse was phenomenal this week, and there’s still loads to improve on with him, in the dressage, and things to clean up in the show jumping.”

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