Big Star Lights Up Rome
Sunday 26 May 2013
Big Star, the 10 year old bay stallion owned by Beverley Widdowson and ridden by Nick Skelton OBE won the Grand Prix in Rome today at the CSIO 5* show in the beautiful setting of the Piazza Di Siena in Rome.
Putting in yet another faultless double clear, Big Star proved to the crowd once again what a talent he is. He wowed the crowds at the London 2012 Olympic Games with the pivotal role he played in securing Great Britain a Team Gold medal; he did it again today in Rome bringing spectators to their feet in his honour.
In a competition that saw forty six competitors come forward in their hope to win the main share of the €200,000 prize fund at stake, it was fourteen that managed to go clear and secure their place in the jump off. Jumping in reverse order based on the time they broke the finish line in the first round, Nick was 9th to go and Robert Smith from Warwickshire with his own 11 year old bay mare Voila whom had also achieved a clear were 3rd. With two riders representing Great Britain, the rest of the jump off field was represented with riders from Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and France.
The first two riders tried to lay down the gauntlet by putting in a fast time, however the price they had to pay for this was a fence falling apiece and 4 penalties being accrued. Robert Smith and Voila deciding to go for a slower clear, did just that and returned home in a time of 45.38seconds on a zero penalty score. His clear was followed by another achieved by Puis Schwizer for Switzerland, followed by a spate of riders incurring 4 penalties.
Knowing that there were some fast riders behind him and that he had to beat Roberts time if he was to have a chance of winning; Nick set off at a pace that was obvious to everyone he was out to win. Making it look easy and with an evident zest for the job ahead, Big Star cleared every fence making turns that you wouldn’t have thought possible stopping the clock at a time of 41.23 seconds.
It was a jump off that took showjumping right to the edge, with the packed grandstands knowing that there was still an incredibly strong field to follow. The atmosphere was made all the more electric as the rider that followed Nick, home rider Emanuele Gaudiano only just missed out from tipping Nick from pole position by 0.08 second and relegating Robert to 3rd place. With the remaining competitors each incurring penalties as fences fell with them trying to put in a fast time, it wasn’t until Alexander Fricker from Switzerland entered the arena as the final rider that a fifth clear was achieved albeit it in a slower time.
A jubilant Nick was absolutely thrilled to have won such a hard fought class. The respect he has for Big Star’s talent was summed up in his comment “He is unbelievable. He has jumped six clear rounds in the past ten days at both La Baule and now in Rome. He is a horse in a million, incredibly special and incredibly talented”.
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