The legendary John Whitaker takes victory in Fontainebleau’s main class of the day
Saturday 22 April 2023
Legendary British showjumper John Whitaker called upon his skills and vast experience to land the main class of the day in Fontainebleau, France, with Equine America Unick Du Francport.
A starting list of 70 littered with Olympic riders faced course-designer Gregory Bodo’s challenging 4* 1.50m track and such was the test of the 13-fence, 16 jumping efforts, only six riders achieved an initial clear round.
John was one of the elite but drew the short-straw in the draw as first to go. Nonetheless, he had his plan and negotiated an early tricky turnback with ease and angled a wide oxer and tall penultimate vertical with smooth, seemingly unhurried elan to set an unassailable target. He held off Austrian Max Kuhner’s bid with Up Too Jacco Blue to win by 0.55 seconds.
"First of all, I must say I'm very happy with winning. You know, despite my age, you never get too used to winning. Because, in fact, in this sport, you lose more often than you win. Today's course was tough: only six riders finished clear out of seventy starters, which is not very many. It was a technical course, which also had to be completed in a short time; that makes it more difficult. I think that the biggest difficulty was the time allowed, it meant you had to take risks. The triple combination was difficult on a difficult turn but actually, people were making faults everywhere, the sign of a fair course,” said John.
“As regards the jump-off, first of all, it's quite difficult to win from the first place. So, I had a plan in my mind what I wanted to do and I was worried about Max Kühner, because he's been in top form this last year. Finally, it was one of those rounds where everything went to plan. I made a plan, and it doesn't always go to plan, but today: everything was smooth, quick and controlled. It's a nice feeling when it goes to plan! ‘Frank’ has had a short rest. He did quite a lot of shows last year, and this year I did the Global Tour in Doha at the end of February. This is his first show since Doha so, he is fresh and he will take part in the Grand Prix on Sunday. He’ll have a day off tomorrow.”
On the future
“As for my long-term plans and the Olympic Games next year, I don't know yet... You know, this year I'm 68, if someone had told me ten years ago I still had the chance to go to the Olympics, I wouldn't have believed it. So, it's not really in my mind. But if the horse is jumping like today, then anything is possible!"
Image: Le Printemps Des Sports Equestres/PSV J Morel
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