Nick Skelton and Big Star claim third in Toronto

Three of Rio’s showjumping medallists ended up topping the podium at the Longines FEI World Cup leg in Toronto, including Great Britain’s Olympic champion Nick Skelton.

Nick and his dual gold medal-winning stallion Big Star took third place in the class, which formed the pinnacle of The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Canada. Having produced the first clear in the first round, Nick and Big Star were the first to go in the jump-off – and while this played to their advantage in Rio, it didn’t quite go their way in Toronto.

It was only second international competition for the pair since the Olympics, with their last appearance in the FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona.

Asked how the stallion coped with the indoor arena, Nick said: “For him, it’s difficult as he’s a big horse and the fences come at you very fast. His forte is outside in a big arena, but I’m really happy with how he jumped. I don’t think he ever jumps bad.”

McLain Ward and his Rio ride HH Azur won with the only double clear of the competition, with his Olympic teammate Kent Farrington (Creedance) taking second with the fastest of the four-fault jump-off rounds.

“When you’re pressing that hard often a mistake happens and it did, Kent and Nick both had a fence down today so it took a lot of that pressure off,” said McLain.

Result

1, HH Azur (McLain Ward) USA 0/0 36.02; 2, Creedance (Kent Farrington) USA 0/4 35.19; 3, Big Star (Nick Skelton) GBR 0/4 37.26; 4, Chaqui Z (Shane Sweetnam) IRL 0/4 37.49; 5, Gasper van den Doorn (Mac Cone) CAN 0/8 40.51; 6, Monodie H (David Will) GER 4/58.45; 7, Cynar VA (Jessica Springsteen) USA 4/58.54; 8, Lilli (Georgina Bloomberg) USA 4/58.89; 9, Cassini Z (Darragh Kenny) IRL 4/59.24; 10, Confu (Laura Kraut) USA 4/61.79.

You can watch the FEI World Cup series on Horse & Country, Sky Channel 253. Don’t have Sky? Sign up to watch online.