A France – Ireland match at Grimaud

Already 3rd in yesterday’s 1.50m, Irish rider Michael Duffy, again piloting Jeff Ten Halven, made his presence felt, dominating the major class of the day, the CSI 5* over a 1.55m track. Riding an impressive jump-off in a time of 30.93s, he stole the limelight from French rider Edward Levy and his bouncy Rebecca LS who came close to adding yet another win to their long list (31,65s). “It’s great to win here in St Tropez! It’s an incredible competition, Sadri Fegaier and his team really do a tremendous job. The course was pretty big, but my horse didn’t seem at all worried by it and was really listening to me so I just thought, ‘let’s keep going like this’. I really enjoyed riding in the class. On Sunday I’m going to do Grand Prix and then we’re off to Barcelona for the CSIO 5*.“ Behind them, Wilma Hellström and Cicci Bjn (34.52s) were third for Sweden.
Although victory had narrowly escaped him a few minutes earlier, Edward Levy had his revenge in the CSI 5* – 1.50m. Out of 39 participants, the Frenchman and his long standing ride Sirius Black were the fastest to cross the finish line in 66.69s. “I’m really pleased with Sirius, he’s an exceptional horse, often in the ribbons. He’s a horse that I brought on right up to the top level and today I’m happy to see that he’s still in great form over 1.50m tracks. It was an excellent afternoon, Rebecca finishing 2nd in the 1.55m, Sirius winning the next class, it couldn’t have been better!” said the rider with enthusiasm.  “It was a relatively difficult course, usually this class isn’t quite as difficult, it was really 1.50m everywhere and rather twisty but it gave some good sport. Sirius will be jumping tomorrow and then he’ll have finished his weekend. Rebecca will be doing the Grand Prix on Sunday and Catchar will be doing the one tomorrow evening.”  A French trio at the top with Alexa Ferrer and Uranie de Belcour in second place in 67.31s, followed by a rider who will soon be leaving for Barcelona, Grégory Cottard and Cocaïne du Val in 67.57s.
Romain Dreyfus riding Camelia Sauvage won the first competition of the day, the 1.30m in the CSI2*. The dashing 9 year old mare by Scarface de Mars gave her rivals no chance,  beating the second placed rider by almost a second (33.94s). “Camelia wins a lot of speed classes, she’s always very fast, actually more so than me, as she sometimes has trouble waiting, but today we both wanted to win and it worked!“ Yesterday’s winner, the couple formed by Cédric Hurel and Royal Destinee had to satisfy themselves with 2nd place with a time of 34.86s, followed by Holland’s Kim Emmen riding Diarados Black Diamond finishing in 34.87s.
Second class of the day and second Marseillaise. Nine made the jump-off with Charles Berthol and Laurens-S emerging as the winners in the CSI 2* – 1.40m, crossing the finish line in 35.30s. “This is the third or fourth time I’ve come here this year and it’s my first victory in a 2*. My horse was amazing, and if we continue along this path it’s very promising for the rest of the season! We were meant to do the ranking tomorrow but finally we’ll only do the Grand Prix on Sunday“, explained the winner. The podium was completed by Algeria’s Sofian Misraoui and Autamtlara (36.02s) and the Belgium’s Abdel Saïd riding Cream Couleur Z (36.26s).
Today the competitions of the CSI 1, CSI 2 and CSI 5*.

Hubside Jumping Griamud | Photo Sportfot

HSJ