Italians delight the home crowd in Rome, winning the Piazza di Siena Nations Cup and 5* Grand Prix

Nine nations lined up for the opening €200,000 Nations Cup team event: Italy, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Canada. Four horse-and-rider combinations represented each country over two rounds of jumping on Uliano Vezzani’s course, with the bottom score dropped.

In the end, it was the Italian squad of Luca Marziani, Giulia Martinen, Emanuele Gaudiano and Bruno Chimirri which delighted the spectators in the Villa Borghese park with their victory on the re-grassed surface, finishing with four penalty points overall and beating strong teams from the United States (Laura Kraut, Spencer Smith, Elizabeth Madden and McLain Ward) and Switzerland (Janika Sprunger, Niklaus Rutschi, Arturo Gustavo Da Silva and Steve Guerdat), both with eight faults.

In fact, the result came down to Italy’s anchoring pair, Chimirri and the 11-year-old stallion Tower Mouche, who rode clear under pressure to secure the victory. Germany, Sweden and Canada tied for fourth with 12 faults, followed by the Netherlands, New Zealand and France.

On Sunday, World No.13 (along with Canada’s Eric Lamaze) Lorenzo De Luca continued Italy’s winning ways over the 1.60 m obstacles at the Piazza di Siena on the stallion Halifax van het Kluizebos, collecting an €87,500 paycheque for the pair’s triumph in the Rolex Grand Prix. Irish rider Allen, from Wexford, was runner-up in the two-round competition on another stallion, Hector Van d’Abdijhoeve (winning €70,000), while Tops-Alexander picked up €52,500 for her third-place finish on the 10-year-old gelding Inca Boy Van T Vianahof.

“I’m not sure it has sunk in yet,” De Luca said afterwards [translated from Italian]. “It is incredibly satisfying to do this in front of my home crowd. The great thing is that this was my dream and can be an inspiration for many young people. It is a super prestigious Grand Prix, especially with the new grass surface.”