Great Britain fights hard to take second in a tense Aachen Nations Cup
Thursday 29 June 2023
.JPG "Great Britain fights hard to take second in a tense Aachen Nations Cup")
Two spectacular double clears pulled Britain back from a lowly seventh to second place in a remarkable turnaround in the Mercedes Benz Nations Cup at CHIO Aachen.
Britain drew the short straw in the draw to go first with Ben Maher on Charlotte Rossetter and Pamela Wright’s inexperienced Dallas Vegas Batilly opening the competition under floodlights in the awe-inspiring arena. But they came out fighting to produce a spectacular clear over course-designer Frank Rothenberger’s 12-fence 1.60m track with questions at the double, combination, open water and testing Rolex vertical with skinny top plank towards the end of the course.
Second out for the team, Harry Charles on his Olympic ride, Ann Thompson’s Romeo 88, was a little deep to the early vertical to oxer double and took out the vertical going in and was also judged to have four faults at the water to put them on eight.
Tim Gredley also came home on eight with a rail down and a foot in the water, adding a time fault to the score of nine on Medoc De Toxandria. It was all down to Scott Brash and the sharp but sensitive Hello Jefferson.
Professional and cool as ever, Scott justified his anchor position to pull out a clear. However, the other teams jumped well and Britain were lying in seventh out of eight teams on eight faults at the halfway stage. There was a lot of work to do.
The team got an early boost when Ben provided a double clear on the big-jumping 10-year-old Dallas Vegas Batilly (Cap Kennedy x L’Arc De Triomphe Bois Margot).
“It was difficult going first but I’m very happy, Dallas is a little bit inexperienced at this level and I had to make adjustments to my plan in the first round but she really grew in the second round,” said Ben. “I’m lucky to have her stepping up and taking the pressure off the other horses, she’s probing to be an asset.”
There was light at the end of the tunnel when Team GB’s second rider Harry pulled a clear round out of the bag with the 14-year-old Romeo (Contact Van De Heffinck x Orlando).
“They were two very different rounds, obviously the second round was the best one. I was disappointed about the water jump in round one, they [judges] saw something no-one else did; it was a bitter pill to swallow but I was happy to come out and put it right in the second round and helped the boys out,” said Harry. “We were third last year so we’ll go for the win next year.”
There was no mistake at the water for Tim this time, but Unex Competition Yard’s Der Senaat 111 11-year-old Medoc was caught out by the Rolex vertical two from home as the top skinny plank toppled and added two time-faults to make a score of six.
“This was great experience for both of us, it was a step up from what we have done recently and the horse felt very comfortable at this level. The first round was a bit slow and pensive and four faults would have been better in round two but we’ve both learned from it,” said Tim. I had a talk to the guys and they gave me a bit of advice; they’re three great friends and fantastic riders, it’s an honour to jump with them.”
It all rested on Scott Brash’s shoulders. Not for the first time, Mr Ice-Cool delivered, coaxing Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham’s Cooper Van De Heffinck 14-year-old Jefferson into a double clear. Britain scored a zero score in round two to finish on a total of eight and shoot up the leaderboard to second place just one fence behind Switzerland, who added nothing to their round one score of four faults to win.
“I was delighted, he jumped fantastic. I was a smidgen deep to the water and tried to make that improvement in round two and he felt really, really good,” said Scott.
Belgium finished third, also on eight faults with The USA and Germany mirroring their rounds of eight and four to make a total of 12 to finish fourth and fifth respectively.
CHIO Aachen – 29 June, 2023
Mercedes Benz Nations Cup
1st Switzerland – 4 + 0 = 4
2nd Great Britain – 8 + 0 = 8
3rd Belgium – 8 + 0 = 8
Image: BEF/Jon Stroud Media
