John Whitaker seals back-to-back FEI Nations Cup victories for Great Britain in Rome

The legendary 60-year-old rider sealed the result for them with a last-to-go run on Ornellaia to record Great Britain’s eleventh victory at Piazza di Siena since the Nations Cup was first staged at the iconic venue in 1926.

Whitaker went into the ring knowing he could afford a single fence down in the second round, however he left all the fences intact to post one of four double-clear rounds to secure the winning British total at just four faults.

The World and European champions from The Netherlands went into the event as firm favourites, but they disappeared from the reckoning with a disappointing second round and it was the French and Americans who eventually filled runner-up spot with 12 faults each. Germany slotted into fourth ahead of the The Netherlands in fifth while Canada lined up sixth ahead of Sweden and Italy who shared seventh place.

Five of the countries competing – France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Netherlands – were chasing qualifying points for the FEI Nations 2016 Final which will take place in Barcelona, Spain in September.

Italy’s Uliano Vezzani’s course of twelve fences had fifteen jumping efforts in the time-allowance of one minute and fifteen seconds.

As defending Olympic champions, Great Britain came up against teams they are likely to face in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in just over two months’ time, and everyone was out to prove a point and lay down a marker.

The British were the only side to conclude the first round on a zero score as John Whitaker’s first fault-free effort was matched by Ben Maher with Tic Tac and Jessica Mendoza riding Spirit T. Michael Whitaker, who along with his older brother was also a member of the winning team at Piazza di Siena 12 months ago, produced the first-round discount score with nine faults from Cassionato, but his foot-perfect second run would prove pivotal to the end result.

As the second round began the competition was still wide open, with the USA, The Netherlands, France and the host nation Italy all in close contention with just four faults on their respective score-cards. Sweden had already racked up eight faults while the Canadians and Germans had nine apiece, and with additional penalties none of these nations would feature prominently at the end of the day. One of the standout performances of the day however came from Sweden’s Malin Baryard-Johnsson and the very exciting 10-year-old mare H&M Cue Channa 42 who cruised around both rounds with the greatest of ease.

Despite a fabulous double-clear round from Penelope Leprevost and Vagabond de la Pomme, France lost their grip, as did the USA when also adding eight more faults even though their anchor partnership of McLain Ward and HH Azur were also foot-perfect for a second time.

Italy’s prospects of a home win were dashed with 20 faults to add to their tally, but the biggest surprise was the collapse of the Dutch whose pathfinder, World and European champion Jeroen Dubbeldam, added 16 faults to his first-round single error with SFN Zenith.

Ben Maher kicked off Britain’s second round with a mistake at fence eight as well as the last fence and Mendoza hit fence five, but Michael Whitaker began to pull it back with a great clear round on Cassionato on his second tour of the arena.

This ensured that his brother John had a fence in hand coming into the ring to bring the competition to a close and he did it in style, his clear round leaving his team two fences clear of the joint-runners-up from America and France.

The next leg of the series will take place in St Gallen, Switzerland this coming Friday, 3 June.
Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Jumping 2016 Europe Division 1 League
Result – Piazza di Siena, Rome, Italy

Result:

1. Great Britain 4 faults
2. USA 12
2. France 12
4. Germany 14
5. Netherlands 20
6. Canada 22
7. Sweden 24
7. Italy 24

Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Jumping 2016 Europe Division 1 League
Standings in after third leg at Piazza di Siena, Rome, Italy

1. France 165
2. Netherlands 160
3. Great Britain 155
4. Germany 135
5. Belgium 50
6. Italy 47.5