Scott Brash and Hello Forever finish 2nd in Saut Hermes Grand Prix
Sunday 20 March 2016
The incredible venue of the Grand Palais in Paris saw some tremendous competition under it’s unique domed glass roof this afternoon when the Hermes Grand Prix was fought out.
Almost forty of the world’s best horses came forward to tackle the testing 1.60m course in front of capacity crowds this afternoon, with sixteen of them jumping clear and qualifying for the jump off.
The course, by Frank Rothernberger, was a testing one in the first round and even more so in the second shortened one making it more than worthy of the €132,000 first prize on offer.
GB had two riders through to the jump off in the form of Michael Whitaker with Melissa Braybooke’s Viking V along with Scott Brash from Peebleshire with Hello Forever owned by Lady Kirkham and Lady Harris. A brick down in the wall for Michael saw them out of the running whilst Scott put in a superb performance as the penultimate rider in the jump off to stop the clock almost a second ahead of Christian Ahlmann who had held the lead until then.
It was last to go, Abdelkebir Ouaddar and Quickly de Kreisker for Morroco that somehow managed to shave a further couple of seconds from Scott’s time, whilst leaving all fences standing, to grab the title as his own. His round was almost unbelievable to watch with them putting in an incredibly fast pace from the outset. Luck or judgement, it would be hard to say, however his round certainly drew support from the crowded grandstands who cheered him wildly as he left the arena.
Di Lampard, World Class Performance Manager for Showjumping, said after the class presentation “Scott was incredibly unlucky not to win the class. He rode a fantastic round and if this is the start of the season for Hello Forever who has just returned from having a rest then the future is definitely looking very bright. Scott and his owners manage their horses with precision and the round that Forever put in today is testament to that fact. Viking and Michael were unfortunate in the jump off, it was one of those things, but they looked solid today and put in a solid first round”.
For full results http://results.scgvisual.com/2016/hermes/r9.html
For more information on the show and footage from the competition www.sauthermes.com
