Harry Meade scores international win on former William Fox-Pitt ride Grafennacht: ‘A really useful week’

Harry Meade went on a “fact-finding” mission with Amanda Gould’s top mare, Grafennacht, last week and yielded a runaway win in the CCI4*-L at Montelibretti, Italy, with the pair finishing more than 23 penalties ahead of the rest of the field.

“It was a long way to go to get a qualification – three days’ driving there and back – but it was a really useful week in terms of building our partnership and for me to learn a bit more about her,” explained Harry, who took over the ride on the 13-year-old from William Fox-Pitt last year following the latter’s retirement from top-level competition.

Harry Meade and Grafennacht had contested a couple of open intermediates and an advanced in the second half of last season, and they arrived at Montelibretti on the back of just one prep run this year – a slow canter around the open intermediate at Poplar Park.

“I had a hypothesis beforehand about how I wanted to approach each phase and it all went to plan. I was delighted with her,” said Harry. “She did a lovely dressage test, then I set out across country just thinking about getting a qualifying result, but I ended up letting her stride on as she was making it feel so easy. Then in the showjumping, which has been her weak link, she managed to extend her lead even further [with one fence down].”

Harry has not yet made any firm plans for the coming months.

“I hadn’t thought further than Montelibretti, but now that we have our five-star qualification it has given us options,” he said.

Grafennacht has competed at five-star with William, finishing 14th and 13th at Badminton Horse Trials and second at Maryland 5 Star.

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