Today was the last highlight in 2019, in the ring of the HUBSIDE Fall Tour. This afternoon 45 combinations took part in the last 4* Grand Prix of 2019 in Var. Ten of them qualified for the jump-off, completing the 13-fence course built by French course designer Cédric Longis without any difficulties. Although the French riders were expected to do well, as they had been on top form from the start of the weekend, Great Britain’s Scott Brash was the winner, following a very fast jump-off.
Jérôme Hurel, who was the first to jump clear and therefore the first to enter the ring for the jump-off, had another perfect round in 41.35 seconds. Following him, Brash, winner of this weekend’s opening class, shaved almost two seconds off his time. Completing the course in 39.49 seconds, the British rider looked almost certain to be the winner. Marie Demonte set off in hot pursuit of the two men in the lead and finished in 40.95 seconds, and went into second place in the provisional line-up.
But the podium was very hard to reach despite the efforts of the following competitors. Laurent Goffinet and Lorenzo de Luca both once again completed perfect rounds, finishing in 42.30 seconds and 41.85 seconds respectively. Alexis Deroubaix was the last French rider in this Grand Prix and had one rail down on the second element of the double. Following him, Belgium’s Dominique Hendrickx left the ring with eight faults on the scoreboard whereas his fellow countrywoman, Ann Carton-Grootjans, finished clear, in a time of 44.92 seconds, without worrying the top 3 riders. The only American rider, Lauren Hough, had one rail down on the liverpool, and lost any hope of victory. Last to go, Brazil’s Eduardo Menezes managed to upset the plans of Hurel and Demonte somewhat as he slipped into second place thanks to a time of 39.49 seconds. So Brash was able to add his name to the 2019 HUBSIDE Jumping winner’s list as he was several hundredths of a second faster than the Brazilian rider.