The roof of the Excel must have been tugging at its moorings as London International Horse Show crowd favourite Matt Sampson won Saturday’s ranking class – with a horse he’d barely ridden before.
Matt and HMF Equestrian’s Balento CS put in a fabulous performance in the Snowball Stakes to pip Hickstead Derby winners Robert Whitaker and Gentlemen VH Veldhof by over a second.
After Donald Whitaker and the scopey Ulania 3 were unlucky to have four faults as first to go in the jump-off, Robert and Caroline Blatchford’s 19-year-old went round in polished, professional and super-speedy style to finish on 38.46sec.
But where Robert took out a stride on the long run from the first to the second, Matt did not, which meant he could come back tighter to the National Lottery vertical; instead taking one out to the last vertical, which no one else managed to do, finishing in 37.15sec to a huge roar from the crowd.
“I wasn’t sure about that last line!” Matt said. “I tried to go a bit wider to the oxer, then use his stride to maybe take one out, which I didn’t think many horses would be able to do. And luckily, it paid off.
“London is my favourite show, it’s amazing to win here and what we all want so to do it is a great feeling, and with a new horse like this, it’s great, for his owners and the whole team.”
This is Matt’s first show with the 14-year-old Balou Du Rouet stallion, usually ridden by up-and-coming young Brit Amelie Gachoud who trains with Matt and his fianceé Kara Chad, but they also notched up sixth place in Friday’s ranking class.
“I’ve just borrowed him for this show,” he said. “I’ve not really ridden him, sat on him once or twice, but another horse I was going to bring wasn’t feeling great so I said [Balento] is fit and well, would they like him to come. They said yes, and luckily it’s gone so well.”
Matt paid tribute to Balento’s big stride and his want to do the job but must also take credit for his own skill and horsemanship as this already looks like an established, trusting partnership.
“He’s just a good horse, and good horses do special things,” Matt said. “And that shows what heart they have and how much they love doing what they do, when you challenge them like that and they just grab the bit and go for it. He was loving it.”
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