Scott Brash makes his mark in Madrid

Scott Brash was favourite to win the second leg of the 2014 Global Champions Tour (GCT) out in Madrid, but an unlucky pole in the first round cost him the class.

Pole position

The 2013 LGCT Champion already had one Spanish win under his belt in the CSI5* 1.45m class on Saturday (3 May), riding Hello Annie. Scott rode a fast clear in the jump-off to push Italy’s Luca Moneta into second place by almost half a second.

“We’re still getting to know one another so she’s a bit inconsistent right now,” said Scott. “She can be funny when she goes into a new ring – she has to be relaxed to get the best out of her jump, and that takes time. We need a few more shows before I can think about jumping her at a big level tour.”

Scott’s win made him the firm favourite for the GCT Grand Prix later that day. However, his Olympic ride Hello Sanctos had the second fence down, which put himout of the running.

Good jump-of

Only two riders in this big class jumped double clears to make into the third and final round, against the clock. Both Maikel van der Vleuten and Marcus Ehning went clear for the third time, but the Dutch rider was faster with VDL Groep Verdi to win the class. Marcus (GER) and his 17-year-old gelding Plot Blue were second.

“It is not so easy to ride a jump-off against Marcus, he has so much experience and he had a very good jump-off, but my horse gave me the feeling today that I could go for it,” said Maikel. “The jump-off went the way I planned and it was enough to win today.”

In third place was Gerco Schröder (NED) and Glock’s London, who was recently bought by the Glock Horse Performance Centrein Austria.

Another win

Ben Maher and Cella had four faults in the first round, but his fast time meant he made it through to the next round, where he jumped clear to take seventh place. Michael Whitaker was another Brit to knock a pole in round one, riding Elie van de Kolmen,while brother John had three down riding Argento.

Scott went on to win the CSI5* 1.45m speed class the next day (4 May) back on board Hello Annie. The world number one beat Luca Moneta once again into second place – this time by more than 1.5 seconds.

In the final class of the show John Whitaker and Argento found their form to come third in CSI5* 1.55m with a double clear.