Great Britain's Team Audevard land third place on the podium in a tense, nerve-wracking contest in the Longines League of Nations at Rotterdam
Saturday 22 June 2024
.jpg "Great Britain's Team Audevard land third place on the podium in a tense, nerve-wracking contest in the Longines League of Nations at Rotterdam")
Great Britain’s Team Audevard excelled under pressure to claim third place on the podium in the Longines League of Nations in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in a super-tight competition.
As the Longines League of Nations in St Gallen was cancelled and not rescheduled, this leg in the inaugural 2024 series was crucial and understandably, the big guns were on display. The majority of nations fielded their teams on the Paris 2024 shortlist, and Britain was no exception. With such quality, the competition was predictably hot with an unusually high number of clear rounds produced over the 12-fence 1.60m track designed by The Netherlands’ Quinten Maertens alongside Louis Konickx and Canada’s Peter Grant.
It was hard to split the 10 original teams and, as only eight made the cut into the second round, two teams were disappointed as the decision was made on time. Four nations provided zero scores after round one – including Great Britain after leaving every fence intact – with two teams on one time fault and the rest with only four faults apiece. It had never been so tight and surprisingly, the crack teams of Germany and The USA didn’t make the cut.
The pressure was heightened in round two as only three riders from each team participated with no allowance for a discard score. The heat was on!
Tim Gredley sat this one out as, although he kept his cool to jump a superb round on Unex Competition Yard’s scopey 11-year-old Imperial HBF, the pair picked up two time faults.
As Britain was unfavourably drawn first in round one, there was no better man in the pathfinder role as World Number 2 and reigning Olympic champion Ben Maher and, after supplying the first clear on Charlotte Rossetter and Pamela Wright’s Point Break, he repeated the feat in round two. As the Action-Breaker x Balou Du Rouet 10-year-old is inexperienced at this level, Ben supported this stallion all the way to jump another beautiful clear. Britain was in the hunt.
Clear in round one, Equine America Cacharel looked like she’d never been away despite having six months break last year and gave Joe Stockdale a peach of a ride in round one, flowing round the course and making it look easy. The Cachas x Quinar 13-year-old made just one error second time out, clipping the top rail on the vertical, the second element of the combination, to come home on four faults. The pressure was all piled on young Harry Charles’ shoulders.
But World Number 11 Harry is no stranger to pressure and producing the goods and he rose to the occasion admirably with his 2020 Tokyo Olympic ride Romeo 88. A round one clear was vital to make the cut into round two – a fence down and Britain would have struggled to make the top eight on time. Harry proved he could be relied upon and produced the goods, and then rode with positive conviction on Ann Thompson’s Contact Van De Heffinck x Orlando 15-year-old in round two. The clear round propelled Britain into third place, adding four faults to their round one zero score. The team missed out on second place by four seconds as Sweden, also on four faults, beat them on time. France proved superior, touting a zero score in both rounds to stand at the top of the podium with Belgium finishing one time fault behind Britain on five to take fourth spot.
“A great performance, peaking at the right time of the year. The goal for 2024 is the Paris Olympics and today confirmed how everyone has prepared their horses to peak for August,” said Team Manager and Chef d’Equipe Di Lampard. “Many nations made this a strong competition fielding Olympic teams and I’m very happy to be on the podium in third place and I’m delighted with the way things are shaping up.”
Di was particularly impressed with the two riders on double clears: “Ben on Point Break, who is inexperienced at this level, and Harry with Romeo put in really sold performances. Selecting the three for the second round was a difficult decision but Tim will ride Imperial in the Grand Prix on Sunday while the others will ride different horses.”
However, only eight of the 10 nations competing in the series can qualify for the 2024 final and, despite big changes to the League Table and the supreme effort made, unfortunately Britain along with Belgium will not make the trip to Barcelona, Spain, in September.
Longines League of Nations Rotterdam – 21 June
1st France – 0/0
2nd Sweden – 0/0 - 211.19 seconds
3rd Great Britain – 0/4 - 215.26 seconds
Ben Maher & Point Break – 0/0
Tim Gredley & Imperial HBF – (2)/-
Joe Stockdale & Equine America Cacharel – 0/4
Harry Charles & Romeo 88 – 0/0
Image credit: FEI/Leanjo de Koster
