Friday, 08 April 2022
After five days of excitement, today the FEI Jumping World Cup Final reached its closing act. The last time that Britain finished on the podium at an FEI Jumping World Cup Final was in 2014, when Scott Brash and the great Ursula finished in third. With three riders in the top 11 after two rounds, the British squad was still in with a shot.
Today’s challenge was a two-parter – the top 30 combinations following Friday’s Table A class came forward to jump another track by Frank Rothenberger and Christian Wiegand, with penalties added to their starting score for poles down and every second over the 63-second time limit.
Once all combinations had jumped, the top 20 returned after a short break to jump an entirely new course – the accumulated penalty scores would decide the score.
For this first round, combinations carried through the points they’d accrued over the two previous rounds, which had been converted into penalties using an algorithm – leaders McClain Ward and Contagious from the USA would start on zero, with the rest of the rankings calculated accordingly.
John Whitaker is in Leipzig for his 22nd World Cup Final, this time with the bay gelding Equine America du Francport, who he owns with Clare Whitaker. He started today on a score of 10, sitting in joint 11th place with Germany’s David Will on C Vier and Belgium’s Jos Verlooy on Luciano van het Geinsteinde.
John’s round started well, with Unick du Francport jumping in the smooth, controlled rhythm that he’s shown all week. However, things came a little unstuck in the related distance after fence four, where the pair slightly over-shot the three-stride related distance between fences four and five, coming in a bit close and having the latter down. The rest of the round passed without a hitch, but the pair gained one time penalty as they crossed the finish line, moving them onto a total of 15.
“I somehow finished a bit too close to the fence I had down,” explained John afterwards. “It was three short strides and I think I fractionally overrode the fence before. I couldn’t just quite get him back – my fault really, he jumped great. Would have been better clear, though,” he added with a wry smile.
The youngest rider in the competition, Jack has really impressed over the past few days with his handling of the feisty grey stallion, Equine America Valmy de la Lande. He’s supported here in Leipzig by his famous father, Michael, who owns Valmy and competed him before Jack took over the reins – Michael is no stranger to FEI World Cup Finals, having finished in the top 10 six times over the course of his career.
Consistency has been the buzzword for this combination this week – they started today as the only combination not to pick up a single penalty across the first two rounds. Today’s round was more of the same, with Valmy clearing each of the fences as though he had wings. It was all looking like another picture-perfect round, but the clock flashed red a split second before they crossed the finish line – one time penalty added to their score, leaving them on a score of 9 but still without any jumping penalties on their scorecard.
“It’s all going alright so far, he’s jumping fantastic and I can’t fault him at all,” said Jack. “That was my fault in there – a time fault is never the horse’s fault – so I just need to keep it together now.”
On where he lost the time, he explained: “One to two, I got the seven [strides] a little bit quicker than I wanted to and he got a little bit sharp – the next fence was a light, simple plank and I didn’t want him to get too fresh on the corner. I thought ‘just slow yourself down here’ – on a course like that, you take it jump by jump, but keep thinking ahead. It was my fault, he’s jumping fantastic and doesn’t want to touch one at all.”
The World Cup Final is the first time that Romeo 88 has jumped a CSI5* class since he competed with Harry Charles at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in August, but he certainly isn’t showing any rust in the ring. The pair put in a foot-perfect performance in Friday’s Table A class – Harry had ridden his second horse, Stardust in the speed class – and returned today with a podium placing well within their sights.
Despite being only 22 years old, Harry jumps with maturity and a cool head. Supported by his father, Olympic gold medallist Peter Charles, he’s becoming a master at mapping out the most economical lines around a course and smoothly guiding his horse along them. Today’s round was more of the same, with Romeo – who Harry owns alongside Ann Thompson – making the whole affair look rather easy. A clear round inside the time kept them on a score of five and within spitting distance of the trophy.
Going into round two, Harry and Romeo were sitting in third, sharing the position with Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs and Chaplain, behind joint leaders McClain Ward with Contagious and Harrie Smolders with Monaco. Jack and Valmy sat in sixth, while John and Unick du Francport in 13th place.
While the pole in the previous round might have dashed hopes for a third World Cup win, John Whitaker and Equine America Unick du Francport weren’t going down without a fight. They attacked the new course and cleared the fences easily, but a few sticky corners put them behind the clock and they crossed the finish line with two time penalties added to their score, putting them on a final total of 17. Overall, the pair have had a good week here in Germany and have surely thrown their hat into the ring for a place at this summer’s World Championship in Herning, Denmark.
Another one that may have caught the selectors’ eyes this week is Jack Whitaker and Equine America Valmy de la Lande, who have been on impeccable form. In what is their fifth track over the course of the competition, Valmy once again made the 1.60m fences look like a Pony Club track – there was never any doubt that the poles would stay in the cups, but would they be able to beat the clock this time? In answer, yes – comfortably. With another clear round – and still no jumping penalties to their name – they finished the competition on their score of nine.
As he entered the Leipzig arena for the final time, Harry Charles found himself in touching distance of the World Cup trophy. He and Romeo 88 set off full of confidence and it was all going swimmingly until the combination – a very keen Romeo got a little ahead of himself and the top pole of the vertical first element hit the sand. The pair finished well, though with plenty of time to spare, moving onto a score of nine but going ahead of Jack and Valmy in the placings due to their faster time. It might not have been a fairytale podium finish for Harry’s first World Cup Final, but he can certainly be proud of how he and his talented pair of horses have performed this week
After an incredibly tense final round, the World Cup title went to Martin Fuchs of Switzerland, who threw everything at his final round with Chaplin to rise from overnight third place – having partnered The Sinner in Friday’s Table A class, he becomes only the second rider to ever win the title riding two horses. Second place went to Harrie Smolders and Monaco of the Netherlands, finishing three points behind Martin on a score of eight. One the same score but with a slightly slower time was the Swedish combination of Jens Fredricson and Markan Cosmopolit.
Agonisingly close to the podium, Harry and Jack finish their first World Cup Final in fourth and fifth place. Their performances this week demonstrate the depth of talent in this new generation of showjumpers joining the ranks of British Equestrian’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme – with the World Championship later this year and the Paris Games just two years away, the future of the sport in this country looks bright.
All start lists and results for the FEI World Cup Final series are available here.
Photo: DigiShots