A Big Win for a Small Horse

The GCT Grand Prix de Ville de Cannes was a contest to thrill any show jumping fan. Of the 18 horse that got through to the second round, 17 were clear and consequently it was anyone’s Grand Prix in the jump off. First to go double clear over the jumps was Filipe de Azevedo but sadly he fell victim to time and recieved one penalty for it. So almost inevitably it was Marcus Ehning (Plot Blue) who started the the ball rolling for the jump off. He was immediately matched by Kevin Staut on the wayward Le Prestige St Lois who on this occasion kept his bucking antics to a minimum. The number for the timed round rose to five when Jessica Kurten (Castle Forbes Libertina), Marco Kutscher (Cash) and Edwina Alexander (Cevo Itot du Chateau)joined them.

Serge Houtmanns eight fence jump off course featured that most crowd pleasing feature, a very long gallop to the last jump. Unfortunately, both German riders were not able to take advantage having already had a pole down before that point. But Kevin Staut really set Le Prestige alight having wasted a little time bucking early but to a huge groan the last rail fell. Then Jessica Kurten galloped in and despite knowing a safe clear would leave her no worse than second, she sportingly gave the crowd the round they were waiting for. Despite a herculean effort from her mare, however, she was too far off the last oxer to have any chance of leaving the back rail up and her time was a fraction slower than Kevins. So Edwina Alexander on the smallest horse in the field knew she only had to jump clear to win. You could have heard a pin drop in the stadium. The audience were well aware that one mistake would hand the win to their favourite but Itot du Chateau never looked in any danger of doing so. The cheers and claps could not have been more enthusiastic when the Australian’s French bred horse cleared the final fence. “I was very sure Itot would be clear as he had been jumping so well but it wouldn’t have mattered if I had four time faults instead so I could not go that slowly,” commented the rider at the press conference.

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