DAN NEILSON PROVES HIS TALENT IN HIS FIRST LONGINES WORLD CUP QUALIFIER
Saturday 21 December 2013
Dan Neilson at just 23 years old and contesting his first Longines World Cup qualifier, made his presence felt at the Olympia, London International Horse Show with his third place finish.
Not only competing in his first qualifier, this was also the first time he was competing as a senior rider at the show where he was riding against many of the world’s best riders including Scott Brash and Ben Maher whom top the world rankings list in first and second place respectively.
The course, designed by London 2012 course designer Bob Ellis, looked stunning in the magnificent backdrop of the historic and ornate Olympia main hall. Consisting of thirteen fences, requiring sixteen jumping efforts, it was superb to see some of the London 2012 Olympic fences being used including the iconic London Bus fence which very quickly became symbolic of Team GB’s victorious Team Gold medal win last year in Greenwich.
With the initial competitors of the thirty six strong field notching up faults as fences fell, spectators packing the grandstands must have wondered whether they were going to see any clears produced. Their fears, should they have had them, would have quickly disappeared with an early clear from Germany’s Max Kuhner and Clintop with another ten following to give a total of eleven clears.
Great Britain produced four of the clears to go through to the jump off, the first of which came from Peter Charles with Olga White’s Murka’s Odie de Frevent, an 11 year old bay mare with whom Peter made his debut on Nations Cup teams with last year. The next clear was from Dan Neilson, a World Class Development Programme identified rider, with Stacy Willsone’s 11 year old chestnut gelding Varo M. Michael Whitaker and his 2013 European Team Gold medal winning horse Viking V, an 11 year old chesnut gelding put in the third clear for the Brits with the fourth in the shape of World No.1 rider Scott Brash and Hello Ursula, a 12 year old bay mare owned by Lady Pauline Kirkham and Lady Pauline Harris.
The Jump Off course was one that required the riders to gallop, twist and turn with no choice but to take chances if they wanted to pick up the lion share of the €130,000 prize fund on offer. Jumping in reverse order, Michael and Scott were lucky to be drawn towards the back of the field giving them the advantage of being able to watch some of those go before them. Peter was the second to go in the jump off with Dan in the mid-field position.
With long gallops between fences in addition to a fence on the turn just before heading back home for the final few fences, it was the vertical on this turn across the short edge of the arena that caught many out. Fragile in it’s make up and having had to come at it with pace, it was this fence that fell the most frequently with rider after rider incurring faults.
It was Francois Mathy for Belgium with Polinksa des Isles that produced the first clear, stopping the clock at 37.12 seconds. Their time managed to be beaten by a few others, but taking the risk to do so saw them incur faults relegating them lower down the line up. It was Dan Neilson that managed to produce the next clear with spectators on the edge of their seats realising how tight both his and Francois’ time was. Hoping for a home win and desire for an outsider to achieve, an audible groan was heard from the crowds when the clock stopped just fractionally behind in a time of 37.19 seconds, just 7/100’s of a second slower.
Michael Whitaker, took an incredible gamble by jumping an enormous vertical on an angle. Needless to say, Michael would never take a risk unless he felt it could pull it off; and pull it off is exactly what he did by jumping it cleanly. Upsettingly, a light touch of a fence further on in the course saw a pole lower and 4 penalties incurred in a time of 35.29.
Scott Brash, whom had earlier said in an interview that he intended to use Hello Ursula’s naturally long striding pace to his advantage did just that. Never once breaking his rhythm and not looking like he was rushing, he put in the fastest time of the jump off field stopping the clock in a time of 35.23 seconds. But again, a light touch of a pole saw his hopes of a win dashed and a relegation to 6th place just ahead of Michael.
The final placings were not decided until the last rider, Maikel Van der Vleuten and VDL Groep Sapphire B. Showing why Showjumping is the exciting sport that it is, they came into the arena and showed from the start that they meant business. Setting off on a pace that looked like they could well pay for it with a fence down they jumped clear, in a time of 5/100's of a second faster than that of Francois Mathy to take first place. Stopping the clock ina time of 37.07 seconds, the crowds jumped to their feet to applaud the man that looked absolutely elated to have achieved a first place finish.
Without doubt, this was a tremendous class to watch with the flowing jump off course encouraging riders to gallop between fences making it all the more exciting. Talking after the class Dan commented “This has been a massive day for me today. My first time at the show as a senior rider, my first time in a World Cup qualifier and to come third has been amazing. The crowds are superb and it’s great to have them behind you. I’ve had a good season and to finish the year like this has been great. My horses are all going well and I just hope we can move on from this and build on it”.
Tomorrow will see the last day of the London International Horse Show at Olympia and the final jumping class of the event, the Grand Prix takes place tomorrow evening. For more information on the show and full results please visit www.olympiahorseshow.com
RESULTS - Longines FEI World Cup - 21st December 2013
1st Maikel Van der Vleuton (NED) / VDL Groep Sapphire B - 0 penalties - 37.07
2nd Francois Mathy (BEL) Polinska des Isles - 0 penalties - 37.12
3rd Dan Neilson (GBR) / Varo M - 0 penalties 0 37.19
6th Scott Brash / Hello Ursula - 4 penalties - 35.23
7th Michael Whitaker / Viking V - 4 penalties 35.29
10th Peter Charles / Murka's Odie de Frevent - 4 penalties - 37.78
Image credit: Dan Neilson and Varo M / photographer Trevor Meeks
kjk7q3j4yode.jpg "British riders feature strongly in the Pony Grand Prix of Compiegne")
