Madden claims historic back-to-back King George V Gold Cup success at Hickstead
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ByEurosport
Updated 03/08/2015 at 12:04 GMT
USA’s Beezie Madden won the prestigious Longines King George V Gold Cup for the second consecutive year at The Longines Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead, becoming the first back-to-back winner of the class since 1962.
Beezie Madden of the USA (PA)
Image credit: PA Photos
As the reigning title holder having become the first lady winner of the class 12 months ago, Madden riding 13-year-old Cortes ‘C’ started favourites for this year’s renewal of the historic 109-year-old class.
And once again she showed her class when it mattered and made history once again by becoming the first female rider to win the class in consecutive years.
Kelvin Bywater’s 1.60m course certainly posed a challenge with some of the world’s top riders not completing the track, including Guy Williams and John and Michael Whitaker. The double of gates after the water jump were particularly influential, causing 22 out of the 42 combinations to fault.
Six riders made it through to the jump-off, including Madden and her fellow American Todd Minikus, France’s Penelope Leprevost, the Netherlands’ Jur Vrieling, and two of Britain’s brightest young talents, Jessica Mendoza and William Whitaker.
Vrieling set the pace with a clear round in 49.54 seconds, but Madden then knocked more than six seconds off the time to take the lead.
Minikus had four faults, before Mendoza attempted to net a home win and came incredibly close – finishing 0.3 seconds quicker but knocking the very last fence to end up in fourth.
William Whitaker was last to go but he was nearly in a second in arrears of Madden’s time to finish in fifth place.
Having appeared in Friday’s Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup, in which she jumped-off for the US team, the 52-year-old rider said: “It's quite an honour to win it back to back.
“Friday's jump-off was not my finest moment but I learned a little from that as he likes to jump left and I took too sharp of an angle and didn’t compensate.
“I know he’s amazingly naturally fast so I knew I could leave strides out, like the right turn to the vertical and at the second last fence, so I really tested him there and was able to coast home a little.
“I knew there were a few fast ones behind me so I had to respect that but I didn’t want to run the wheels off and have what happened on Friday.”
Chloe Winchester won Hickstead's Queen Elizabeth II Cup riding Avoca Valkyrie on her debut entry of the class.
A total of 26 riders came forward for this prestigious national final, which is open to the highest-ranked riders on the Area/International points league.
Aptly, Winchester topped the list in 2014 and was a worthy winner of the £12,000 Queen’s Cup, in addition to picking up the trophy for the highest-placed lady rider and the best under-25.
Six riders made it through to the jump-off, with first to go Tina Fletcher and Hello Sailor setting the standard with a clear round in 53.32 seconds. Kerry Brennan (on Wellington M) made a valiant attempt to better the time, but finished just one hundredth of a second in arrears.
After their disappointment on Friday when finishing at the bottom of the leaderboard in the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup, the Italian riders had something to celebrate as Piergiorgio Bucci on Casallo Z headed a huge class of 48 starters in the Bunn Leisure Salver.
Having started the day with a win, the Italian contingent had further reason to celebrate when Lorenzo De Luca and Homer De Reve won the British Speed Classic.
Britain’s Guy Williams – who is renowned for his prowess against the clock – was some 1.35 seconds slower than the Italian rider.
Thursday's feature class - the Bunn Leisure Trophy, was won by home favourite and one of the great equestrian riders, Great Britain’s Michael Whitaker.
Riding Quelbora Merze, the pair headed a 55-strong class and beat Germany’s Christian Ahlmann by just a few hundredths of a second.
Fellow Brit William Funnell took third on Billy Angelo.
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