Britain’s Richard Davenport produced the biggest result of his career to win the fifth leg of the FEI World Cup Jumping series at the Great Hall in Olympia, London today.
Riding the nine year old mare Laguina, the 24 year old rider who is based near Manchester in England set the target in the exciting 13 horse jump-off and many of the best in the world, including last weekend’s Geneva winners Rodrigo Pessoa and Baloubet du Rouet, could not improve on that.
Course designer Bob Ellis’s first round track created plenty of problems for the early runners with pathfinder Guy Williams from Britain getting into trouble at the very first oxer and reigning World Cup champion Bruno Broucqsault hitting the deck when communication between the Frenchman and his stallion Hooligan de Rosyl fell apart and they crashed through the triple bar three fences from home.
The combination at fence seven also proved difficult but many partnerships finished their round with just a single error and a total of 13 riders completed with just four faults on the board.
The legendary Whitaker family can always be relied upon to feature at this big British event but Michael Whitaker, currently in excellent form and unlucky not to feature more prominently in Geneva, was out of luck once again today when Portofino left all the fences up in the opening round but collected a single time fault.
His brother John picked up nine faults while his niece Ellen joined the four-faulters but John’s son, 21 year old Robert Whitaker, made it through to the jump-off which, with 13 starters was never going to be an easy one to win.
Course-builder Ellis asked some very big questions and only the most rideable horses would find all the answers. Accurate and obedient turning was to be the key here and Davenport really put it up to the rest of them when kicking off with a fluent, forward round in which horse and rider were in perfect rhythm and harmony all the way.
His time of 37.16 seconds looked good but nobody could have guessed just how good it would be as, one by one, the rest struggled to get anywhere near to the leader.
Germany’s Lars Nieberg and Lucie had three fences down but Italy’s Roberto Cristofoletti, whose Italian-bred grey stallion Lohengrin de Villa Emilia was most impressive first time out, lost impulsion on the tight turn to the fourth fence, an oxer, and returned with just four faults in 39.58 seconds.
Then both Helena Persson and Classic H for Sweden and Austria’s Gerfried Puck riding S&L 11th and Bleeker had three fences down but things looked set to change when the home side’s Nick Skelton entered the ring with Arko.
The British rider’s chunky little bay stallion is set to take a break early in the new year in order to attend to breeding duties so a good result here would be a bonus, and Skelton made a superb turn to the planks upright, now third on the track, but could not reorganise the horse on landing and found himself a long way off the following oxer which fell along with one more for a total of eight faults.
Finland's Sebastian Numminen opted for a careful clear with Miss Speed and it paid off when they crossed the line in 45.52 seconds and when Markus Beerbaum and Le Mans returned a four-fault result Switzerland’s Christophe Barbeau decided to copy the Finnish and err on the side of caution too, crossing the line clear in 44.46 seconds with Chatwin.
Marcus Ehning was not prepared to take the easy option with Gitania however and was almost a second faster than Davenport when crossing the line in 36.32 seconds but the penultimate fence hit the floor so now only three challengers remained.
Fellow-German, Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst, went into top gear but galloping to the last Candy met it too low and the clock showed 36.11 seconds as they crossed the line with four faults while 21 year old Briton, Robert Whitaker, was quicker than long-time leader Davenport but collected eight faults with Nicolette.
There were no early celebrations in the British camp however because the last man into the ring was Rodrigo Pessoa and, when he’s on fire, he’s a very difficult man to beat.
Like Michael Whitaker, Rodrigo had been having a hectic weekend flying between the two big fixtures in London and La Coruna in Spain.
In Geneva seven days earlier Rodrigo and Baloubet du Rouet were in a class of their own as they galloped to victory but the tight turns on the Olympia track were not tailor-made for the Brazilian rider’s stallion and it was all over when Baloubet overshot the turn to the planks and then collected another eight faults before completing.
Christophe Barbeau slotted into runner-up spot ahead of Sebastian Numminen in third while Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst was quickest of the second-round four-faulters in fourth place.
"This is the biggest win of my career and a great Christmas present - I’m delighted with my horse" said Davenport afterwards.
"I got Laguina from Jan Tops two years ago, she’s by Landfriese, and she is always great to ride against the clock but I really didn’t expect to win from the front" he added.
The British rider, who has been a member of Team Sony Ericsson for the last 12 months, spent some time training at Jan Tops yard in Holland and has been showing improving form of late.
"I went in to do as quick a round as possible but I didn’t want to rush Laguina. I knew that she is good at turns and I wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the ones that were coming after me but I didn’t think I was fast enough to win" he pointed out.
Las Vegas is his big target – "I’d love to qualify for the final and I’m hoping to get into Mechelen after Christmas to try to pick up more points" he said. Today’s result has promoted him to equal-14th position on the leaderboard which is still led by Wim Schroder followed by fellow-Dutchman Eric van der Vleuten in second place and Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson in third.
Mechelen in Belgium is the next port of call and the FEI World Cup action takes place on Thursday 30th December.
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