Historic win for Belgium in FEI Nations Cup

Belgium has won the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup at Piazza di Siena, Romefor the first time in the show’s 82-year history.

British lead

It looked like Britain would clinch the third leg of Europe Division 1 series, as the team were in the lead going at the half-way stage on a zero score. Ben Maher (Cella), Michael Whitaker (Viking) and Scott Brash (Hello Sanctos) all jumped clear in the first round, which meant Joe Clee’s unfortunate 20 faults was the drop score.

At this stage Belgium and Germany were joint second, each carrying just four faults, while the Dutch were only a single fault behind them on five.

However, the second round didn’t go quite so well for the British riders. Ben knocked one down, while Scott and Michael had two fences each. It wasn’t a good day at the office for Joe who had accumulated a further 17 faults.

Disastrous round

The Belgian team managed to move into the top spot, despite a disastrous 24-fault round from Ludo Philippaerts. Niels Bruynseels and Constant van Paesschen jumped double clears while Ludo’s son Nicola had just one down.

Their total of eight faults put them one point ahead of Germany, in second place, while Britain was third with 20 penalties.

Belgium’s chef d’equipe, Kurt Gravemeier, said: “I couldn’t have been happier today. Rome is a classic horse show, and this win is extra special because it is the first time for Belgium to win the Nations Cup here.”

Valuable points

This was the first FEI Nations Cup leg where Britain was competing for points. Their third place awarded them a score of 70, which puts them in eighth place on the leaderboard. They still haveFalsterbo in Sweden, Hickstead and Dublin left to gain valuable points.

The next round of Europe Division 1 will be held in St Gallen, Switzerland on Friday 30 May.

On the final day of the show in Rome, Michael Whitaker and Viking narrowly missed out on winning the five-star Grand Prix, which had a €200,000 prize fund. They were beaten by just 0.02 seconds by Canada’s Eric Lamaze and Zigalis PS, who took top honours.