Billy Twomey is HOYS Leading Showjumper

Billy Twomey has won the Leading Showjumper of the Year grand prix on the final night of the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) in Birmingham.

Flying form

A total of 12 riders made it through to the jump-off, but Billy was the only rider to produce a second clear riding Diaghilev.

Last year’s winner Julian Epaillard – who has been on flying form at HOYS – narrowly missed out defending his title, when he posted the fastest time but had one down riding Cristallo A LM.

This is the third time Billy has taken the coveted title, previous wins were in 2013 and 208.

‘Brilliant week’

“I am absolutely delighted,” said the Irish rider who is based in Nottinghamshire. “This week has been brilliant, and it is nice to top it off with a grand prix win.

“The horses have come back into form, and hopefully I can continue to kick on from this result.”

H&C blogger Yazmin Pinchen was third on Van de Vivaldi, with Colombia’s Daniel Bluman fourth on Conconcreto Apardi.

Close call

Sunday night’s warm-up class was the Vinopolis Speed Horse of the Year title, which was won by Nigel Coupe and Jubilee III. Nigel was drawn early in the class and set a standard of 49.35sec that couldn’t be beaten.

It was a close call, however, with just 61 hundredths of a second between the top four. William Whitaker and Balibu came closest to knocking him off the top spot, with a time of 49.50sec, but had to settle for second place.

Fences down

It has been a good week for Yazmin Pinchen, who came third riding Ashkari (49.88sec) ahead of John Whitaker and Lord of Arabia (49.96sec).

Nigel last won the class around 27 years ago, when HOYS was held at London’s Wembley Arena.

“I am absolutely delighted,” said Nigel. “When you are drawn early and go into the lead, you always expect to be shot at, but today they kept having fences down.”