John Whitaker and Argento win the €400k Longines Grand Prix in St Tropez
Saturday 04 June 2016
The masterful John Whitaker won the Longines Grand Prix at the Athina Onassis Horse Show in St Tropez this evening to take the lion share of the €400,000 prize fund that was up for grabs.
Just over forty riders came forward to contest the 1.60m course that had been designed by Luc Musette and it was just ten that managed to go clear in the first round. With the ten coming forward for second round accompanied by eight of the fastest combinations with the least faults to make up a field of eighteen, the packed grounds were riveted to their seats knowing that they were in for some world class jumping.
It was only five of the initial ten that managed to jump another clear, one of whom was John and his own and wife Clare’s incredible stallion Argento. The others making up the field were French riders Kevin Staut with For Joy van’t Zorgvliet HDC and Simon Delestre with Qlassic Bois Margo, Christian Ahlmann and Taloubet Z for Germany along with Jeroen Dubbeldam with Carusso LS La Silla for the Netherlands.
With the five coming forward for a third and final round the atmosphere became electrifying when three of the first four riders delivered yet another clear; the only exception being Jeroen who had accrued 8 penalties on the course.
John, who was the last of the five to come forward, entered the arena knowing that the three third round clears had all delivered an incredibly fast time. Not only fast, they were all also only a fraction of a second apart with Christian Ahlmann holding pole position at that point with a time of 36.26 seconds whilst Simon Delestre sat 2nd in 36.33 seconds and Kevin Staut in 36.96 seconds.
As cool as a cucumber, John Whitaker pulled out a performance of mammoth proportions when he delivered a clear with the utmost precision to stop the clock 0.09 seconds faster than Christian to claim the title as his own.
The packed grandstands, irrelevant of the nation they were representing, showed their appreciation in abundance for the genius of John Whitaker and the tremendous British Bred (Arko III) Argento with them jumping to their feet to give him a standing ovation.
For full results of the Grand Prix and other classes at the show please visit http://www.longinestiming.com/#!/show-jumping/2016/1180/html/en/longinestiming/resultlist_04.html
.JPG "Chris Smith Clinches Back-to-Back Wins in the International Stairway at Royal Highland Show")
