Great Britain's Michael Whitaker, winner of today's Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping qualifier at Verona, Italy, is presented with his prize by Mr Gianricardo Marini, Managing Director of Rolex Italy.
WHITAKER IS INVINCIBLE IN VERONA
Verona (ITA), 8 November 2009 – Great Britain’s Michael Whitaker stormed to victory at the fourth leg of the 2009/2010 Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping series in Verona, Italy today where the world’s top riders were faced with the toughest track of the season so far. Second to go in the five-horse jump-off the 49 year old veteran stamped his authority all over the result with a fantastic run from Insul Tech Amai. Germany’s Gilbert Bockmann slotted into runner-up spot with another talented nine year old, No Father’s Girl, and reigning European Champion, Kevin Staut from France, finished third with Silvana.
Whitaker was in flying form throughout the Italian fixture. He was second on Thursday with Portofino who belied her 15 years with a spring-heeled performance and second again yesterday evening with Amai. When left with the decision about which of the two to take in today’s tough class he said he decided on Amai “because Portofino has shorter legs than Amai, so he can go faster!”
TESTING
The course, created by Conrad Holmfeld and built by Frank Rothenberger, was hugely testing. Riders were asked to shorten and lengthen strides all the way around the 13-fence track which was big and wide and exceptionally demanding. So much so in fact that six retired in round one while Italy’s Francesca Capponi was eliminated with Stallone. The water-tray under the oxer at fence three was framed by greenery and many horses gave spooky, suspicious jumps here which threw them off their much-needed concentration. There were plenty more problems further on the track but the trickiest of all was the short one-stride effort required on jumping into the triple combination and then the long reach for the second element. And, as if that wasn’t enough, there was another difficult four-stride distance to the final oxer. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=8798
Tags: equestrian competitions, equestrian disciplines, FEI, FEI World Cup, hunter/jumper
November 8, 2009