Press release – Tenth leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour, last on the French soil, the Jumping International of Chantilly has opened today in the greatest way possible. An excellent start to the week-end where the sport is brought to light in a majestic way, with the Great Stables and the Castle of Chantilly as the backdrop. Still two more days left to watch the best riders and horses compete on the “cantilien” racecourse.
The major class, the Global Champions League, has closed beautifully the day on the Arène Meautry. Seventeen teams of five riders, randomly chosen at the beginning of the year, names ringing to the cities of the Longines Global Champions Tour compete in a two-times class, spread over the first two days of the event. Two riders participate in each leg and today, the Hamburg Diamonds have shown to be the strongest. John Whitaker and Harrie Smolders made honor to their team, signing two clear rounds with a tiny difference on the chronometer, 11 hundredths over both rounds, on the Miami Glories, also double-cleared thanks to the 2012 Olympic Champion Scott Brash and USA Paris Sellon. However, the cards will probably be reshuffled during the second round, tomorrow at 1:45pm, and the ranking is likely to change.
However, the class didn’t finish here, as it also serves as an individual competition, today mandatory to those who do not participate in the GCL, and tomorrow qualifying for the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Saturday night (5:15pm). All clear-rounds were called again for the jump-off. A tie-break won by Portugal Luciana Diniz, with Edouard de Rothschild grey stallion, Winningmood, 18 y-old dean of the CSI5* here in Chantilly, dominating though the yet fast enough Scott Brash of more than a second! The teammates of this latest, Paris Sellon, finished right behind him as the team winners were more discrete: with one pole down, John Whitaker ends 6th; Harrie Smolders didn’t even jump, rather wanting to preserve his stallion for the second round of tomorrow.
The day begun with, in the early morning, the 1* and 2* classes on both arenas of the racecourse where the first spectators present could watch riders suck as Guillaume Canet, second of the Prix Renault Rent (1,35m), Marina Hands or the professionals already riding for their competitions of the day.
The first rendez-vous was given at 1:45pm, start of the first 5* class, the Prix French Tour. This speed class was lead from the start by Belgium Pieter Devos, atop Haloubet Hitchcock, a 10 y-old gelding, who went second and set the bar high with a 60,03 seconds chronometer, unreachable by the other 43 contestants.
The competition returns tomorrow at 8:30 on the Amphithéâtre de Verdure. A day to follow where we will know the final twist of the Global Champions League and the name of the new winner of the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Chantilly.
Source: Press release
