GB take Fourth as Belgians make history with Furusiyya victory in Rome
Saturday 24 May 2014
The city of Rome has witnessed many historic moments, and today was another as a Belgian team consisting of a veteran and three super-talented young riders broke the mould to win the third leg of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping Europe Division 1 series. Belgium had never before headed the Nations Cup line-up at Piazza di Siena during the 82-year history of this great horse show,
The British quartet looked like the hottest ticket in town with the two leading riders on the Longines rankings, Scott Brash MBE and Ben Maher MBE, each competing their top horses and joined by Michael Whitaker and the recently on-form Joe Clee.
Any course created by Italian course designer Uliano Vezzani is to be respected, and the expression on the faces on the riders after the course walk already told a story. Vezzani has a unique ability to keep it simple, yet to test the best and come out with the right result, and today he stretched them over enormous oxers and then asked them to be balanced and in control at massive uprights. “It’s a brilliant track” said London 2013 Olympic team gold medallist Peter Charles who would watch the competition from the sidelines. “Uliano has built it big but it’s a really fair course because the size of the arena gives them plenty of room to get themselves right for the fences. They just have to jump them!” he added.
Starting out over an oxer followed by an upright, riders turned right-handed to another oxer before moving down to the open water at fence four, and from here the real problems began. The following wavy planks proved the bogey of the opening round when riders couldn’t quite get back control, and sometimes the oxer that followed also hit the floor. A wide left-hand turn then brought them to the triple combination - oxer, vertical, oxer - which led to a vertical with water-tray that consistently hit the sand throughout the afternoon, and the following narrow gate also proved influential before the right-hand turn down the last line. This consisted of a big oxer with a spiral-striped colour scheme running through the poles and a water-tray beneath which some horses seemed to find a little spooky, and then it was on to the penultimate double - a very tall vertical to a colossal oxer - before a bending right-handed line brought them to the last. These tall planks proved a heart-breaker for several riders who survived all the earlier challenges only to make a single error here.
At the halfway stage the form-book seemed to be playing itself out with one exception - the French had endured a disastrous first round, accumulating 17 faults despite a fabulous clear from pathfinder Penelope Leprevost and Flora de Mariposa. There was never any way the nation that won on home ground at La Baule and which is defending the Furusiyya title they won last season could recover from there.
The British were leading on a zero score as round two began, while Belgium and Germany were next carrying just four faults while the Dutch were only a single fault further adrift carrying five. Qatar carried 13, the French 17 and Italy was already lying last having collected 24 faults first time out.
The British grip was slightly loosened by 4 faults from Ben Maher and Jane Clarke's Cella at the oxer at fence six, but an uncharacteristic 17 faults from Joe Clee and Ludwig Criel's Diablesse de Muze really put them under pressure. So when both Michael and Viking and Scott riding Lady Kirkham's and Lord & Lady Harris' Hello Sanctos followed their first-round clears with two fences down second time out, the Brits finished with a final total of 20 faults.
The result leaves Great Britain holding eighth place on the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping Europe Division 1 leaderboard.
For further information on round 8 of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping 2014 series in Rome, Italy go to website http://www.piazzadisiena.com/.
There will be two legs of the series taking place on Friday 30 May 2014. The next round of Europe Division 1 will be held in St Gallen, Switzerland and for all information on the Swiss fixture visit website www.csio.ch. The next leg of Europe Division 2 takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.
Result:
1. Belgium 8 faults: Challenge V. Beginakker (Ludo Philippaerts) 4/24, Pommeau du Heup (Niels Bruynseels) 0/0, Citizenguard Toscan de Sainte (Constant van Paesschen) 0/0, Forever D Arco Ter Linden (Nicola Philippaerts) 4/4.
2. Netherlands 9 faults: Zenith SFN (Jeroen Dubbeldam) 4/0, VDL Groep Verdi Nop (Maikel van der Vleuten) 4/0, VDL Bubalu (Jur Vrieling) 1/9, Glock's London (Gerco Schroder) 0/4.
3. Germany 12 faults: Fyloe V. Claessenhof (Daniel Deusser) 4/16, Liberty Son (Marco Kutscher) 0/4, Embassy ll (Hans-Dieter Dreher) 4/4, Chiara (Ludger Beerbaum) 0/0.
4. Great Britain 20 faults: Cella (Ben Maher) 0/4, Diablesse de Muze (Joe Clee) 20/17, Viking (Michael Whitaker) 0/8, Hello Sanctos (Scott Brash) 0/8.
5. Ukraine 23 faults: Vivant (Cassio Rivetti) 4/8, Light on Old (Ulrich Kirchhoff) 13/6, Chadino (Ferenc Szentirmai) 8/0, Charlie (Katharina Offel) 5/0.
6. France 25 faults: Flora de Mariposa (Penelope Leprevost) 0/0, For Joy van'T Zorgvliet HDC (Kevin Staut) 12/4, Qlassic Bois Margot (Simon Delestre) 9/4, Orient Express HDC (Patrice Delaveau) 8/12.
7. Qatar 26 faults: Come Soon (Faleh Suwead Al Ajami) 8/4, Vienna Olympic (Ali Bin Khalid Al Thani) 4/8, Castiglione L (Mubarak Yousuf A Al Rumaihi) 8/4, Primeval Dejavu (Bassem Hassan Mohammed) 1/5.
8. Italy 36 faults: Elky van het Indihof (Lorenzo de Luca) 8/8, Banca Popolare Bari Cassandra (Francesco Franco) 11/Ret, Loro Piana Canada (Filippo Moyersoen) 8/0, Cocoshynsky (Emanuele Gaudiano) 8/4.
Standings in the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping 2014 Europe Division 1 series after Round 3 at Piazza di Siena, Rome (ITA):
1. France - 245.00
2. Belgium - 165.00
3. Switzerland - 150.00
4. Spain - 112.50
5. Netherlands - 90.00
6. Germany - 80.00
7. Ireland - 75.00
8. Great Britain - 70.00
9. Ukraine - 60.00
10. Sweden - 50.00