Ben continues to hold Olympia Leading Rider title as Saturday draws to a close
Sunday 21 December 2014
Saturday saw people flocking to Olympia, the London International Horse show for both the afternoon and evening performances which all delivered some brilliant showjumping.
In addition to the International classes below, the Dodson & Horrell world Class Programme U23 British Championships also took place. It was Kerry Brennon with Wellington M who secured the title as their own. A full report on this is available at http://www.britishshowjumping.co.uk/media/news/thrilling-finale-to-u23-british-championships
Christmas Tree Stakes
Young Dutch rider Maikel Van der Vleuten produced a magical display of precision riding to overhaul British brothers Michael and John Whitaker in the Shelley Ashman International Ltd, EM Rogers (Transport) Ltd Christmas Tree Stakes at Olympia, The London International Horse Show.
Bob Ellis’s track rode more easily than anticipated and a whopping 17 combinations went through to the jump-off. However, the shortened course quickly sorted the field and only five jumped clear as riders buckled under the pressure.
Michael Whitaker showed all his experience to produce a superb round on Valentin R for 36.86 seconds, while John was just 0.6 seconds slower on Lord of Arabia. The brothers topped the leaderboard until, a few horses later, Maikel, riding the nine-year-old bay mare VDL Groep Arera C, cheekily shaved off a further 0.72 seconds off the senior British rider’s time.
“I’m not just a bit gutted, I’m totally gutted!” said Michael afterwards. “I think the course rode more easily because it was about 0.5m smaller than last night’s, so felt a bit easier, and, of course, the sport is so much more competitive nowadays.”
Maikel, who is becoming a popular fixture at Olympia, is now second in the H & M Leading Rider of the Show table. He commented: “I didn’t think the course was that easy when I walked it, but we certainly ended up with a lot of clears. But then when you get that many riders in a jump off they take too many risks, which helped me.”
Ben Maher also went clear in the jump-off to finish fourth, on Wings Sublieme, and his consistency over three days means that he still holds onto his H & M Leading Rider armband, by a commanding lead of 10.5 points, with two days to go.
Christmas Masters
It was a case of making way for the younger generation in the Christmas Masters at Olympia, The London International Horse Show, as two teenagers battled it out for the €13,000 first prize in this winner-takes-all competition for the leading seven riders in the show. Riders nominate fences to be raised and the prize pot increases with every clear round jumped.
The two 19-year-olds, Ireland’s Bertram Allen and Belgium’s Jos Verlooy, both made it to the fifth and final round of this knockout competition and jumped off against the clock over some fearsomely big fences.
Jos made a gutsy attempt to beat Bertram’s perfectly judged clear in 27.92 seconds but his horse Golden Horta just caught the final fence with his hind legs.
British rider Ben Maher, the H & M Leading Rider of the Show, and the senior rider of the seven, was out first, when Cloud Nine ll hit a fence in the second round. Martin Fuchs, son of international Swiss rider Thomas Fuchs, and Dutch rider Jur Vrieling departed in round three. Constant van Paesschen, son of Belgian team rider Stanny van Paesschen, lasted until the fourth round.
Bertram explained that he opted for the pathfinder slot in the draw because he had only had four days’ acquaintance with his ride, Aminko N. “I figured that as I don’t know the horse that well it would be best to go at the start of each round when the fences are lowest.”
Aminko N was produced, like Molly Malone and Wild Thing, by fellow Irish rider Billy Twomey, and was previously ridden by his stable jockey Beth Vernon. The Allen family own the horse jointly with Billy.
Bertram has had an astonishing year, winning the first round of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in France, the Longines Grand Prix at Dublin and the Longines FEI World Cup qualifier at Verona.
“It’s been a dream year with a lot of major highlights,” said Bertram, “but I’m not going to let it affect my riding. My plan for 2015 is to keep jumping the fences.”
For more information and full results please visit www.olympiahorseshow.com
