Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano, one of the Morocco Royal Tour’s most loyal riders, has won a respectable number of classes in Tetouan over the last ten years (as last Thursday and Friday with Jaja), but he has never won the Grand Prix Of Tétouan S.A.R Le Prince Heritier Moulay El Hassan. This is now the case, thanks to his powerful 10-year-old Belgian stallion Nikolaj de Music.
Thirty-five pairs started over Olympic course designer Gregory Bodo’s course, with the clear rounds coming almost exclusively from the Europeans, with only Morocco’s Vincent Zacharias Bourguignon getting in on the action with an excellent trip from his very young Zangersheide gelding Junius Vd Heffinck Z, with just two time penalties. There were ultimately nine making it into the jumpoff, with three Italian riders in the mix. The first of them, Roberto Previtali on Conthargo-Blue, logged the first clear round of the second leg, setting the tone. Belgium’s Cyril Cools and Germany’s Andre Thieme were faster, however, and the final Italian, Emanuele Gaudiano, put Northern Europe to rights with his athletic son of Kannan, bettering Cyril Cools and Milton Z’s time by almost two seconds.
“I made the difference mainly between the penultimate two obstacles, where I asked Nikolaj to take four strides, whereas the others took five, and then I went very fast to the last fence,” explained the Italian, who paid tribute to Nikolaj. “He wasn’t an easy horse. I’ve been riding him since he was four years old, and he’s indeed very strong, but now he’s a good four- and five-star horse, and this isn’t his first four-star Grand Prix victory.”
“When I design a course,” explained Bodo, “I take into account the horse line-up, of course, but here I also had to take into account the large crowd, which reacted strongly and brought this event to life for each horse. My idea was to propose a World Cup course, a Grand Prix designed for the horses in forward movement, with a concern to protect them. It was a course that was open to everyone, and the proof is in the number of four-faults [rounds] (12).”
The Morocco Royal Tour consists of three fabulous venues, all CSI 4*, taking place between October 5-22, 2023. The circuit kicks off in Tetouan, from October 5-8 (€234,000 in prize money), them nmoves to Rabat from October 12-15 (€274,000 in prize money) including the Moroccan Nations’ Cup and a 4* Grand Prix. The final stop is an indoor showjumping event in El Jadida from October 19-23 (€241,000 in prize money) for the Moroccan Horse Show (Salon du Cheval d’El Jadida), where the flagship class is the Grand Prix de Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI de Saut d’obstacles.
TOP 5 RESULTS
GRAND PRIX DE TÉTOUAN S.A.R LE PRINCE HERITIER MOULAY EL HASSAN
CSI 4* – 1,50 m – Grand Prix Coupe du monde en 2 manches
1) Emanuele Gaudiano, ITA – Nikolaj de Music 0-0/39.33
2) Cyril Cools, BEL – Milton Z 0-0/41.15
3) Andre Thieme, GER – Conacco 0-0/41.41
4) Roberto Previtali, ITA – Conthargo-Blue 0-0/42.85
5) Barbara Schnieper, SUI – Canice 0-0/43.21
GRAND PRIX DE LA GARDE ROYALE
CSI 1* – 1,40 m avec barrage
1) Adam Grzegorzewski, POL – Dark Fire 0-0/34.49
2) Zakaria Zoundi, MAR – Dahmaniah 0-0/37.58
3) Fouad Larhrissi, MAR – Dean Martin 0-0/37.71
4) Mykola Pylypeiko, UKR – Carbaron 0-0/38.10
) Mohammed Nizar Souktani, MAR – Deus d’Herbiers 0-0/38.25
PRIX DE LA F.R.M.S.E
CSI4*-W – 1.50 m (LR) -Winning Round
1) Elian Baumann, SUI – Hold Up Di Vico P. 0-0/37.15
2) Simon Delestre, FRA – Crack d’Aiguilly Z 1-0/38.62
3) Bart Clarys, BEL – Oscar Van Spieveld 0-0/38.75
4) Katharina Rhomberg, AUT – Dinadja 0-0/39.44
5) Ines Joly, FRA – Pegasus Dawsons Flex 0-0/39.78
Full results here.
~ with files from Pascal Renauldon / rbpresse.com
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