Olympia wrap & farewell to Valegro

What an action-packed show Olympia is! Here's coverage of just some of the classes - but the biggest event of all was Valegro's emotional retirement ceremony

World Cup Qualifier

Scott Brash thrilled the packed house at Olympia, The London International Horse Show, with a virtuoso performance aboard the fleet-hoofed mare Hello M’Lady to snatch the Longines FEI World Cup Western Europe qualifier by the tiniest of margins.

Scott Brash on Hello M’Lady winning the World Cup qualifier at Olympia (Image: Hpower/Kit Houghton)

There were double celebrations when Ben Maher, the last British rider to win this prestigious class (back in 2011), finished second on another mare, Diva ll, by just 0.12 of a second.

Belgian rider Nicola Philippaerts, whose father, Ludo, won this class back in 1988, was third on H&M Harley vd Bisschop.

Thirteen riders from eight nations went through to Kelvin Bywater’s ingenious jump-off track which hinged on getting the sharp angle back to a double on a blind turn and then clearing the upright fence on a curving galloping line.

“Kelvin did a great job,” said Scott. “It was big and technical but, nowadays, the standard is so high that there are horses that will just skip round.”

Only five of the 13 riders achieved a double clear and German maestro Marcus Ehning, who could have spoilt the British party when last to go on Comme Il Faut, racked up a surprising 20 penalties.

US rider Laura Kraut, whose partner Nick Skelton was already en route to Birmingham for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, was fourth on Zeremonie and 61-year-old John Whitaker rode superbly to finish fifth on Ornellaia while crowd favourite Lorenzo De Luca finished sixth for Italy with one rail down on Limestone Grey.

Olympia represents the eighth of 13 legs in the Western Europe World Cup league and Scott’s win elevates him 26 places to sixth in the standings and within sight of a place at the final in Omaha, USA, in April.

“I think I will target the Final this year,” said Scott. “I don’t very often, because there’s such a full calendar, but I’m very fortunate to have a strong team of horses, some of which are back from injury now – including Hello Sanctos [his Olympic team gold medallist] and Hello M’Lady.” Of Lady Kirkham’s agile nine-year-old mare, he commented: “She’s sharp, an exceptional jumper and very much one for the future. It was very special to win in front of a home crowd.”

Ben Maher, the first rider to go clear in the jump-off, could perhaps consider himself hard done by, having set such an exacting standard, but his mare was returning to form and he said simply: “I would have been happy with sixth, quite honestly. Diva loves this show and jumped brilliantly; it’s just great to have her back. Congratulations to Scott – I couldn’t have done any more.”

Christmas Tree Stakes

Italian rider Lorenzo De Luca brought the crowd to their feet with a stunning performance in the jump-off of the Martin Collins Enterprises Christmas Tree Stakes.

Lorenzo De Luca on Halifax van het Kluizebos (Image: Hpower/Kit Houghton)

The Olympia crowd took the young Italian to their hearts and he did not disappoint, pulling off an audacious round on the white-faced chestnut by Heartbreaker, Halifax van het Kluizebos, to clinch victory from Daniel Deusser on Hidalgo VG.

The competition involved a timed first round from which 14 went through to the jump-off. Ben Maher put up a spirited challenge to finish third (and best of the British) on the eight-year-old Don Vito.

Lorenzo, a member of the Italian Air Force, is trained by Dutchman Henk Nooren and is based in Brussels. This is his first appearance at Olympia.

“Halifax is very fast and careful and he wants to do his best,” said Lorenzo, 29, who is 17th in the Longines FEI World Rankings. “This is a super show. Everyone told me it was great, but now I know. It’s a proper horse show.”

Father Christmas Stakes

Laura Renwick secured Britain’s first outright show jumping win of the week in the Father Christmas Stakes. This is an accumulator competition in which a clear jump over a fence accrues points, with a final optional joker fence offering a tempting double, its easier counterpart.

Remarkably, Laura has only ridden her winning partner, Con Chilli, for two months. “She’s usually ridden by Yazmin Pinchen, but I have the ride on her as Yazmin is pregnant,” she explained. “The other two horses I have here are also Yazmin’s, but this will only be my second show with those. They are all going really well here and I am very fortunate to have them.” Laura was also in the final shake-up of The Christmas Masters, in which the top seven leading riders of the show so far were eligible to compete.

In this class, riders nominate a fence to go up before they jump. If they jump it clear, the prize pot increases by £500; if not, the prize fund stays the same and the fence is dropped back to its previous height. After each round, all those still clear jump again until the fifth and final round, in which the jump-off is against the clock.

Laura (Dominant H), Sweden’s Malin Baryard-Johnsson (H&M Indiana) and Irishman Bertram Allen (High Valley) remained after four rounds, and went head-to-head for the winner-takes-all purse of £14,000.

Unfortunately, first-drawn Laura finished on four faults, but Bertram posted a fast clear, with a time that Malin could not match.

“It wasn’t an easy class to win. Often, if you get to the fifth round, you’ve won,” said Bertram. “It was difficult to know how fast to go as I was mid-drawn, so I didn’t want to risk going too fast and having a fence down.”

However, the young Irishman rode his round to perfection to take the spoils.

Winning faces: Bertram Allen and High Valley (Image: Hpower/Kit Houghton)

Under-23 British Championships

Team GBR Olympic reserve, Jessica Mendoza, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in show jumping, but until today there was one gap in her CV: the U23 British Championships at Olympia.

She put that right with a masterful victory on Wan Architect, despite 15-year-old Jack Whitaker, the European Pony Champion, running her close to the wire with a mature performance on the grey stallion Grade A Valentin R, one of three horses he qualified for Olympia.

Yazmin Davis finished third on Zilverster ll, having incurred a time penalty in the jump-off.

Jessica, Jack and Yazmin all jumped clear in the first round and were joined in the jump-off by the fastest of the four-faulters, who knew they had nothing to lose by going for speed and putting pressure on the top three.

Graham Gillespie set a blistering target with a clear round in 35.86 seconds on Celine, which was good enough to take fourth place, and Millie Allen, a star of the Pony and Junior circuits, was fifth on the stallion Balou Star.

Despite all her experience, Jessica, 21, commented that she felt Kelvin Bywater’s track was ‘stiff enough’ and said: “I watched everyone’s rounds very carefully. Jack did a very smooth round which was hard to gauge so I knew I had to go for it. I’ve been second and third in this class so winning it at last really means a lot.”

Jessica, who has been competing Wan Architect in other classes at Olympia, was 4.54 seconds faster than Jack, but his calm, classical approach was impressive and father Michael, who was in the audience for once, was visibly as proud as punch.

“I’m very, very pleased,” Jack said afterwards, “though I should have gone quicker! This is a prestigious class and I’ve been trying to get here for ages.”

Christmas Cracker

Steve Guerdat was always going to be dangerous when drawn last to go in the Longines Christmas Cracker, and so it proved. In a five-horse jump-off, the 2012 Olympic champion, a perennial visitor to Olympia, shaved 1.37 seconds off the time achieved by Ireland’s Anthony Condon and Balzac, who took second place.

Steve Guerdat on Corbinian (Image: Hpower/Kit Houghton)

It was an international line-up with Spain’s Manuel Fernandez Saro third on U Watch, Malin Baryard-Johnsson fourth for Sweden on H&M Cue Channa, and Bertram Allen fifth for Ireland on Izzy By Picobello (the eight-year-old Izzy is actually by Cicero Z!).

Steve was aboard his dual FEI World Cup finalist Corbinian. “I was quite lucky to be last in the class and therefore last in the jump-off, and so I knew what I had to do,” he said. “I was confident that if I rode well, he would be on my side.”

Snowman Stakes

Olympia regular Laura Kraut got the better of Italy’s Lorenzo De Luca in the Snowman Stakes, snatching the lead with an extraordinarily fast start to the jump-off. “I can’t believe I finally beat him,” said the delighted American rider. “He’s just so fast.”

Lorenzo had romped into the lead on Halifax van het Kluizebos, his winning partner from the previous day’s Longines World Rankings class, the Christmas Pudding Stakes, with just two left to go. But, the last rider in the ring, Laura set out to win with the nine-year-old Cavalia and gained time back straight away between the first two fences.

Continuing to claim back time around the track, she came home cleanly with over a second in hand. “I only watched the others go on the screen in the collecting ring,” said Laura. “When I saw Lorenzo go, I decided then it had to be all-or-nothing to win.”

Puissance
Holly Smith, who had never ridden in a puissance competition until this year, and the teenager from Ireland, Christopher Megahey, 18, a first-timer at Olympia, shared the spoils in a thrilling finale to the Cayenne Puissance.
Great shot of the Puissance wall! (Image: Hpower/Kit Houghton)

With the Duchess of Cornwall looking on, the pair both cleared 7ft 1in in the fifth and final round. That’s a whopping 2.16m!

Holly (nee Gillott), riding the huge bay Irish sport horse Quality Old Joker, showed all her experience from the hunting field, saw the perfect stride and cleared the massive wall in superb style.

But then the young Irishman matched her for nerve and pinged over on another Irish-bred horse, his brother’s former eventer Seapatrick Cruise Cavalier, in a result that will thrill fans of horses from the Emerald Isle.

Norwegian rider Rebekka Lie Andersen finished third, having retired in the third round on Want To Do, and Britain’s Laura Renwick, who withdrew from the third round, was fourth on Top Dollar Vl.

“It’s fantastic,” said Holly, 27. “All my friends are here to watch. I tried to treat it as a normal show, but it’s just got such an amazing atmosphere. The first three rounds didn’t actually go that well, but then I managed to see a forward stride in the fourth and he jumped brilliantly.”

Holly Smith on Quality Old Joker clearing 7ft 1 inch to win the Puissance (Image: Hpower/Kit Houghton)

Christopher was equally thrilled. “I loved it – it didn’t faze me at all. It’s just brilliant being here, being around top riders like Marcus Ehning and Scott Brash.”

Driving

The world’s leading driver Boyd Exell (AUS) showed the enthusiastic full house at Olympia just why he deserves that title. The six-time World Cup Driving Champion and four-time individual gold medallist drove two peerless rounds in the final leg of the FEI World Cup Driving to take the win.

FEI World Cup Driving Leg with Boyd Excell (Image: Kit Houghton)

Finishing in third place last night in the qualifying round, behind Hungary’s Jozsef Dobrovitz snr and Koos de Ronde (NED), meant Boyd took on the course before them. Up until then only one of the four previous drivers – Georg von Stein from Germany – had posted a clear. Boyd showed his intent by driving superbly and clipped ten seconds off von Stein’s time. Following him, Jozsef and Koos both drove clear but could not match the time. The top three competed again over a shortened course, starting from a zero score. Jozsef lost time at obstacle one attempting a tight turn, then had a knockdown at obstacle two. Koos pulled out all the stops and secured a very fast time but in doing so picked up five penalties.

Boyd only had to drive clear but that was no barrier to him putting his foot flat to the floor. He galloped home clear two seconds faster than Koos to notch up his third win in FEI World Cup Driving qualifiers this season, keeping him at the top of the rankings.

All three top drivers paid tribute to the highly-charged atmosphere at Olympia where the crowd are so enthusiastically engaged with the competition. “I feel on home ground here,” remarked Boyd, who moved from the UK to Holland two years ago.

“That does increase the pressure for me but equally we are all lifted by the crowd. The show is the one we want to be at.”

Daniel Naprous (GBR) who finished fourth yesterday, remarked, “Olympia gives British drivers the most wonderful platform to compete against the best in the world. They are so welcoming to us and we are getting better as a result. It’s a thank-you to Olympia.”

Dressage

Earlier in the show (the second day) British Dressage’s own Superman, Carl Hester, won the FEI World Cup Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle with Nip Tuck (‘Barney’).

Carl Hester and Nip Tuck (Image: Kit Houghton)

This was Carl’s second consecutive Olympia FEI World Cup qualifying win with his 18hh 2016 Olympic team silver partner, and it came during an emotionally charged evening performance that saw the retirement of Nip Tuck’s stable and Olympic team mate Valegro. The double Olympic gold medallist is part-owned by Carl and ridden by his pupil and former protégé Charlotte Dujardin.

Carl and Barney’s  freestyle (84.669) delighted the capacity crowd. “That was the biggest atmosphere at Olympia that I have ever experienced,” said Carl, who is now aiming for the FEI World Cup Final in Omaha in April.  “Even yesterday in the Grand Prix it was super-charged and not just because of the numbers. Barney was a little on edge but I was really pleased that, even out there, with so many people, he kept with me.”

Carl was also a major part of the evening’s retirement ceremony for Valegro.

“It has been such a joyous occasion,” he said. “I know everyone thought it would be sad, but how could anyone be sad to see Valegro go out so fit and well and happy? It’s been a happy-sad day.”

Carl and Nip Tuck not only successfully defended their Olympia title, but comfortably held off the potential challenge from Dutch Olympic riders Hans Peter Minderhoud with Glock’s Flirt (81.880) and Edward Gal with Glock’s Voice (80.467). These two, as in the Grand Prix, took second and third place. Hans Peter is the current holder of the World Cup title, which he won with Glock’s Flirt – his first FEI World Cup accolade.

“I expected a great class with a big atmosphere, so I knew we would have to produce our very best and then I heard Carl’s score,” he said. “I just had to keep to the plan and do the best we could and not over-ride him. He was really with me and really trying, so I am super-happy, but perhaps it’s time to make my freestyle more difficult.”

Fellow Dutchman Edward Gal and the stallion Glock’s Flirt were third, while Irish rider Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K (78.269) performed a powerful and expressive routine to a seasonal foot-tapping compilation and finished fourth. British rider Hayley Watson-Greaves achieved a personal best with Rubins Nite for fifth place.

While Carl Hester has yet to win a FEI World Cup Final, he has trained both Valegro and his rider Charlotte who have won the FEI World Cup series on two occasions (2014 and ’15).

Valegro: time to say goodbye

It was a very special moment when Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro entered the Olympia Grand Hall for a final time and trotted into the arena to perform their London 2012 freestyle test to a sell-out crowd in a touching retirement ceremony. In 2014 the pair set the freestyle dressage world record at Olympia, and currently hold the highest Olympic freestyle score. Beyond their phenomenal medal haul, they have achieved a great amount for the sport itself, as acknowledged by British Dressage in a special award ceremony during last night’s performance.

Valegro (Image: Kit Houghton)

Valegro and Charlotte were then joined in the arena by Carl Hester, as well as groom Alan Davies, for what was a very emotional last dance. Clapping almost drowned the music, and it was a particularly poignant moment as Valegro piaffed to the strains of ‘Time to Say Goodbye’.

Speaking after the ceremony, Charlotte said, “There have been so many happy memories, he’s won every gold medal there is, including three Olympic golds and two FEI World Cup titles. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse and I’ll miss competing with him enormously.”

Time to say goodbye: Valegro and Charlotte (Image: Kit Houghton)

 

 

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