So close – but not quite: British rider just misses out on major grand prix title

Britain’s Scott Brash came within touching distance of victory in the Rolex grand prix at the Dutch Masters in ’s-Hertogenbosch this afternoon, but ended up second.

The double Olympic team gold medallist, the only ever winner of the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping, was one of three riders to go clear in the first round.

Two of the three clears came from 12-year-old mares by Chacco-Blue – Miss Blue-Saint Blue Farm under Brazil’s Yuri Mansur and Hello Chadora Lady for Scott. Lady Pauline Harris and Lady Pauline Kirkham’s horse has been with the Brit for less than a year, her most recent rider before him being the USA’s Natalie Dean. The third jump-off contender was France’s Simon Delestre on the 13-year-old Hickstead son Cayman Jolly Jumper.

Yuri was first to go in the Dutch Masters grand prix jump-off and put in tight turns in the looping middle section, but he risked too much to the final fence and Miss Blue-Saint Blue Farm skimmed through the top rails of the Rolex oxer.

Scott followed and was improving on Yuri’s time all the way, but unfortunately Hello Chadora Lady’s hindlegs brought down the penultimate fence, an upright. His time was better than Yuri’s – 41.57sec to 43.08sec – but the door was open for a steady clear to land victory.

Knowing that, Simon played it safe and piloted Cayman Jolly Jumper to a fault-free round. His time, 55.45sec, was irrelevant as he crossed the finish line without penalty and became the first French winner of the Rolex grand prix of ’s-Hertogenbosch.

“I’m delighted with Chadora Lady, she jumped incredible, but annoyed at myself for the jump-off,” said Scott. “I know her and I needed one more stride in front of that vertical. She’s so fast anyway but when you know Simon is coming behind you and you know him and Cayman are very quick, you put the pressure on yourself to try to deliver a quick clear and it didn’t pay off in the end.”

The British rider first tried this mare a couple of years ago.

He explained: “I loved her but things didn’t pan out for us to buy her, but fate brought us back together and we’ve had her for seven or eight months now. I always thought she was a fantastic mare, super quality, super quick. The question was if she could do the top, top grands prix and today was the biggest class I have jumped with her, so I’m absolutely delighted with how she performed.”

Winner Cayman Jolly Jumper is back on form after missing the Paris Olympics due to injury.

“I’ve never ridden a horse like him – with such energy and scope, but he’s also very careful. He’s very active and sometimes in places he doesn’t like he gets angry, so I try to have him relaxed and the rest he knows and can do by himself,” said Simon.

A demanding course

The 14-fence first-round course, designed by Louis Konickx, Quintin Maertens and Gerard Lachat, offered options on striding in a couple of places, while demanding pinpoint accuracy on the set number of strides in others. It also played with colour and materials, from the unusual wall at fence one to the pale green and pink line at fences seven and 8ab and the delicate black plank at the penultimate fence.

With two doubles and a treble, so 18 jumping efforts in total, there were plenty of places for riders to make a mistake and errors were well spread round the track, with the oxer at 8a taking the most victims.

Perhaps the hard luck story of the Dutch Masters grand prix was Belgium’s Pieter Devos, who finished clear over the fences, but incurred one time-fault with Casual DV Z, eventually finishing fourth.

Britain’s only other contender besides Scott was Ben Maher, but he and Point Break were out of the running when they incurred eight faults in the Rolex treble at fence five, hitting the upright in and the back bar of the oxer out.

Martin Fuchs started among the favourites, but Leone Jei – competing in his 14th Rolex major grand prix, beaten only by Hello Jefferson’s 16 – had the upright at fence six and the second part of the double at eight down, after which the Swiss rider elected to retire.

Meanwhile the Netherlands’ defending champion Willem Greve’s dreams of back to back victory ended when Grandorado TN NOP touched off the top gold pole at the gappy upright into the corner of the arena at fence 11.

Perhaps the greatest crowd groan, though, was when the upright at 8b came down for the home side’s Harrie Smolders and Monaco, who finished sixth. Harrie had been the live contender in the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping going into this competition, after the pair’s victory in Geneva in December.

Final Dutch hopes of victory died when last-to-go Maikel van der Vleuten and his Olympic individual bronze medallist Beauville Z NOP knocked the front bar off the red oxer at fence four and then retired after two more down.

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