The reigning world champions Henrik von Eckermann and his tremendous gelding King Edward proved unbeatable once again to win the 21st running of the IJRC Top 10 Final at the CHI Geneva in Switzerland on Friday night (8 December).
“This is a very special win for me,” said Henrik, who, with his gallant partner, the 12-year-old King Edward, will surely go down in showjumping history as one of the all-time greats and received a standing ovation from the appreciative sell-out Swiss crowd.
“This class was my focus after the world championships, it’s been a target for many years. But this horse really deserved to be up there with all these good horses [past winners include Explosion W, Hickstead, Hello Sanctos, Baloubet Du Rouet and Shutterfly] because he’s absolutely one of them. He’s an historic horse and I’m just honoured to be able to ride him.”
Ten of the world’s leading riders lined up for the 21st Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final in this prestigious five-star event and anticipation rippled through the crowd as each rider in turn was introduced to the crowd before one of the greatest showdowns in the sport commenced.
Course designers Louis Konickx and Gerard Lachat built two testing tracks which snaked round the vast Palexpo arena for the 10 contenders in the IJRC Top 10 Final. Run in reverse order of their world rankings, USA rider McLain Ward opened with a snappy clear on Contagious, just quarter of a second inside the time. They’d made it look easy but then Frenchman Kevin Staut followed with an eight-fault round on the 13-year-old Toulon mare, Visconti Du Telman.
Dual Olympic individual silver medallist Peder Fredricson and the lofty grey Catch Me Not S looked to have taken the track all in their stride, but a glance at the clock revealed a crucial time-fault. Would that prove costly as the competition unfolded?
“He’s a quick horse with a slow rider!” smiled Peder afterwards.
We then had two clears in quick succession from Brazillian rider Marlon Zanotelli and the tail-swishing Like A Diamond Van Het Schaeck and Simon Delestre with the Hickstead-sired Cayman Jolly Jumper.
Ben Maher: ‘A bit unexpected’
“A bit unexpected” was how Great Britain’s sole representative Ben Maher described relatively new ride Exit Remo’s stop at the treble combination. Ben was last year’s winner when riding Explosion W, but he came home with a 31 fault-total with a rail added at the Rolex double, proving how quickly the time faults rack up after a refusal nowadays.
Faults followed for Harrie Smolders (Monaco), who tapped an airy vertical on a tight turnback, while there were groans as the phenomenal winning pair of Julien Epaillard and Caracole De La Roque came home on eight faults, before home rider Martin Fuchs (Conner Jei) also collected four.
As the number one ranked rider, Henrik was last to go in round one and King Edward looked better than ever, clearing each fence by at least a foot, giving us our fourth clear in round one.
Round two of the IJRC Top 10 Final accelerated into a brilliant finale, with tension building as riders jumped a slightly shortened course of nine fences in reverse order from the previous round and, with live interviews held with each rider after every round, the insight for spectators was superb.
Ben Maher and Exit Remo returned to tackle the new obstacles with real class and posted a spotless clear, to finish on their first round score.
“We came through that [first round upset], he’s a horse for the future and hopefully Explosion will be back in the team with these horses next year,” said Ben.
Julien Epaillard returned carrying his eight faults from round one, with the mare Caracole fighting for her head round a midway bend, as she so often does, and the pair met the distinctive “cow” fence too deep and had four to add.
Kevin Staut, a former winner and competing in this class for the 10th time, added a clear to his eight faults from round one, taking all the inside turns, and then Harrie Smolders replicated his quick clear to take the lead with a four-fault total on Monaco and put the pressure on his higher ranked opponents.
Peder Fredricson: ‘You have to risk it all to win’
Martin Fuchs dropped down the leader board with a tally of 12 faults in round two before the striking pair of Catch Me Not S and the world number 11 Peder Fredricson trotted into the arena, bidding for another clear.
“Of course I was a bit disappointed with my time-fault in the first round, but going into the second round I was really nervous to get a time-fault there also, because sometimes when you want to go slow you can easily add up to three time faults with this new rule [one fault per second],” said Peder and, having survived a lucky rub at the penultimate vertical, he nailed another clear, this time within the 60sec allowed.
“I knew it was possible to be on the podium with one fault – in a competition like this everyone wants to win, you have to risk it all to win and when your risk, a pole can easily fall down.”
The contest all came down to the final three riders on a zero score. McLain Ward set off with the bright chestnut Contagious at a great pace but just toppled the third fence from home to slip behind Peder.
“It was rider error, I should have just trusted my horse,” said the dual Olympic team gold medallist.
Henrik von Eckermann: ‘I thought, oh no I’m going to be second again’
Then came the familiar silhouette of the little chestnut King Edward with his tall jockey Henrik perched forward in the saddle as they rocketed off from the first fence and pinged over the fences. Henrik, who finished second in the class last year, set the target of a double clear in 48.42sec , but the Swede was left thinking his run to the final oxer was too slow, leaving him vulnerable to the final two competitors.
“It all went according to plan except the last line,” he explained. “I wanted to do seven strides but I got a bit close to the vertical at the second last and I didn’t see the forward strides so I had to wait for another one and it felt like for ever.
“I thought ‘Oh no, I’m going to be second again.’ But luck was on my side today.”
Pressure told as IJRC Top 10 Final debutant Marlon and Like A Diamond gambled everything, but they met the vertical two from home off an acute bend on a tricky stride, and the mare was in two minds whether to take off, then put down, crashing through the fence for four faults.
“I tried to be competitive but that’s the sport,” Marlon reflected.
It all came down to Simon Delestre with the huge striding Cayman Jolly Jumper. They flew round the track, but despite an absolute flyer to the last, the pair finished nearly a second slower than their Swedish rivals and a well deserved victory went to Henrik von Eckermann with his phenomenal partner King Edward.
“The owner couldn’t be here last year so for him to see this today is fantastic,” said Henrik, who as well as reigning as the world number one for the past five months, was crowned world champion and married his long-time partner Janika Sprunger in an unforgettable year. “He’s an incredible horse.”
Runner-up Simon Delestre reflected of Cayman Jolly Jumper, with whom he has contested Nations Cup and the world championships: “This is his first year at this level, his first time in Geneva, and he just keeps on improving.”
Third placed Peder Fredricson added: “It was a fantastic competition, good sport, top horses and it was really exciting to the last rider.”
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