News

Gaudiano gallops to victory in London

Dec 22, 2015

The Christmas show at the Grand Hall in Olympia is always something special, and the seventh leg of the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping 2015/2016 Western European League more than lived up to expectations today when Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano produced a sensational victory at the London (GBR) venue.

In a 17-way jump-off, the 29-year-old rider and his plucky 10-year-old gelding Admara simply blew the rest away with a fearless gallop when eleventh to go against the clock. A top-class list of home contenders were obliged to line up behind him, with Ben Maher coming closest to take runner-up spot with Diva ll ahead of Michael Whitaker and Viking in third, world no 1 Scott Brash and Hello M'Lady in fourth and Guy Williams and Titus in fifth place.

A total of 36 horse-and-rider combinations from 14 nations took part, and Bernardo Costa Cabral set them a 13-fence track that Brash described as “twisty and turny”. The narrow confines of the Olympia ring always presents quite a course-building challenge, and the Portuguese course designer described his creation as “not one of the tallest tracks, but technical enough - it walked tougher than it rode.” That was borne out when five of the first seven starters jumped clear, but the double of oxer to vertical at fence eight, and the last two fences which consisted of a massive 1.75m-wide oxer followed by a water-tray vertical took their toll.

1 ADMARA 2 PADINUS 103CB96 KWPN Emanuele GAUDIANO ITA 0/0/36.20 36.250 €
2 DIVA II KANNAN 103YY08 AES Ben MAHER GBR 0/0/37.15 29.000 €
3 VIKING JACOMAR NED42472 KWPN Michael WHITAKER GBR 0/0/37.28 21.750 €
4 HELLO M'LADY INDOCTRO 103JN86 BWP Scott BRASH GBR 0/0/37.49 14.500 €
5 TITUS LANCELOT BEL40413 KWPN Guy WILLIAMS GBR 0/0/37.74 10.150 €
6 SUPER SOX SALITO 103FE32 HANN Cian O'CONNOR IRL 0/0/38.51 7.975 €

12 BINTANG II TANGELO VAN DE ZUUTHOEVE 103LL90 KWPN Laura RENWICK GBR 0/8 3.625 €
13 QUIET EASY 4 QUIDAM'S RUBIN 102UY11 OLDBG Bertram ALLEN IRL 0/8 0 €
18 CATWALK IV COLMAN 102XV23 HOLST Robert WHITAKER GBR 1 0 €
19 SPIRIT T TORNADO 103KX42 AES Jessica MENDOZA GBR 4 0 €

Source FEI News