France’s Olivier Pereau and GL events Venizia d’Aiguilly ensured that suspense was at its height until the very end of the class, winning the CSI 5* Hubside Store Grand Prix on Sunday at the Hubside Jumping de Valence (Drôme). The great sporting occasion featured the best riders and horses, cheered on by a very enthusiastic audience.
The course designed by France’s Cedric Longis promised some great sport. Thirty-five combinations competed in the class; there wasn’t a clear round until the eleventh combination came into the ring, and after that a string of clears followed. Grégory Cottard and his great mare Bibici, a combination which will be representing France at the next European Championships, proved that it was possible. In their wake, Morgan Bordat and Uma also jumped clear and went through to the jump-off. In total, eleven combinations managed to obtain their ticket for the second part of the class, representing five nations: France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Belgium.
Grégory Cottard on his grey mare had the difficult task of going first in the jump-off. The opening combination took a lot of risks and finished clear in a time of 37:25. This meant the following riders had to go very, very fast to improve on the time to beat, and Rhône Alpes’ Olivier Perreau and GL events Venezia d’Aiguilly did just that, finishing in 36:92.
Olivier Perreau said, “This is my first CSI 5* Grand Prix victory. I saw Grégory Cottard’s round, which was already very fast, then Simon’s one, which was just as quick. I had all this in mind when I was last to go and so I pulled out all the stops. It was an advantage for me to go last, especially concerning the distances I chose. I knew where I had to go fast if I wanted to win. There were eleven of us in the jump-off, so we were all going to be placed. If I wanted to win, I had to give it my all.
“GL events Venizia d’Aiguilly was fantastic and I’m delighted. All my horses were placed this weekend: I came with six and all six were placed. They were amazing. I would really like to thank Sadri Fegaier and his whole team. We were also lucky to have a great audience, which is very positive.
“I would also like to thank and congratulate Cédric Longis, who built some great tracks throughout the weekend. He’s a really modern course designer. He is really talented because his tracks are designed with the horses in mind. If they make mistakes, they never result in lots of poles being knocked down. He really allows the horses and riders to progress.
“GL events Venizia d’Aiguilly was bred at my farm. My family has bred lots of horses over the years. And we have been breeding even more for the last few years. Now we have around twelve foals every year, that we train for sport and also trading purposes.”
Cédric Longis, the course designer, commented, “The result is positive: you can only be happy when you finish with a Grand Prix like this. We did everything possible for four days to prepare the horses for this class, which obviously puts pressure on you. Olivier Perreau was the winner and was last to go in the jump-off, which is the ideal situation. We had eleven jump-off riders but that was in keeping with what we had planned. We only had thirty-five riders competing, but it was tough because all the horses could have jumped clear as we had an exceptional line-up. We managed ensure that all the horses knocked down a few poles here and there, without making the course too hard. It was the goal to have eleven jump-off riders. So we did a good job.”
Full results here.
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