Brits win at Monaco Global Champions Tour
Scott Brash has racked up another Longines Global Champions Tour (GCT) win — this time taking the grand prix at Monaco.
The world number one showjumper won the grand prix du Prince De Monaco with Hello M’Lady on Saturday (27 June).
The Scottish rider picked up the top prize after an exciting jump-off. Scott fought off fellow Brit John Whitaker, who finished a close second with Argento. In third was Italian rider Emanuele Gaudiano and Adamara 2.
“It’s good to have a horse who can take the pressure off Sanctos,” said Scott, of the mare who is owned by Sanctos’ owners, Lord and Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham.
“She’s a phenomenal horse, she’s young, she’s only nine, so she’s inexperienced and it’s only the third or fourth time I have pushed her against the clock. She’s a fantastic mare and I’m privileged to be riding her. Whenever my owners come I seem to win so they must be my lucky mascots, they need to come more often.”
Fifteen riders went clear in the first round, with nine jumping clear in the second round and through to the jump off. Scott was third last to go and finished on a time of 28.83s.
Scott’s victory has rocketed him up the championship rankings into second place. He is now just 36 points behind GCT rankings leader Luciana Diniz from Portugal who has 181 points. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson of Sweden is now in third place on 128 points.
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“There’s still a long way to go, I’m going to take one leg at a time and it’s great to be in this position at this stage, but there’s still a lot of jumping to go so a lot will change round yet,” added Scott.
It was a second win of the day for Scott, who also took the CSI5* prix sapinda with Hello Annie. He was again ahead of John Whitaker, who was that time aboard Ornellaia.
And John Whitaker enjoyed success on Friday (26 June) taking the prix Monte-Carlo Bay with Ornellaia. Again it was a British one-two as Ben Maher finished second with Aristo Z.
“I love the sport,” said John. “When you win a class like this one, it gives you more motivation to continue.
“Ornellaia is 10 now, and I think she is perfect for the Global Champions Tour circuit.
“She didn’t do a really big grand prix, except for Shangai where she went clear. I’m thinking about her for the grand prix of Estoril next month. She’s doing really amazingly and that gives me confidence for the future.”
The eighth leg of the tour is in Paris next weekend (3-5 July).
For full Monaco report don’t miss this week’s issue of H&H — out Thursday 2 July.
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.