\u201cI have always known that he is a very good horse, and now he is improving all the time. It is nice to have him down here in Oliva, and to be more competitive with him. I have really high hopes for the future!\u201d a happy Brash said after winning the first Grand Prix of the Spring MET 2018.<\/p>\n
The 1.45m course, set by Elio Travagliati (ITA), counted 13 obstacles and 16 efforts and the class took place in the beautiful Valencia ring under the January sun. With names like Nicola Philippaerts, Conor Swail, Scott Brash, Pedro Veniss, Pilar Lucrecia Cordon, Olivier Robert, Lorenzo De Luca, Constant Van Paesschen, Julien Epaillard and Laura Renwick on the start list the Grand Prix offered top sport with the world\u2019s very best riders in action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was a well build course. Seven clears out of 39 competitors is a good number and the course was fair and nice to ride,\u201d Brash detailed about the CSI2* Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The jump-off gave the riders several possibilities to stretch out, and use their horses\u2019 gallop and first out was home favourite Laura Roquet Puignero (ESP) with Sandi Puigroq (Diamant de Semilly x breeding unknown) and they set the standard with a safe clear in 43,66 seconds.<\/p>\n
Caio Carvalho Filho (BRA) shaved 2,5 seconds off Roquet Puignero\u2019s time, but with one down it was not to be. Conor Swail (IRL), well known for being fast, didn\u2019t disappoint as next to go. Together with Domino van de Valhoeve (Lord Z x Concorde) he set off in full speed from the beginning and took over the lead in 39,40 seconds.<\/p>\n
French rider Valentine Belooussoff squeezed into runner-up position as next to go, with his 42,69 seconds, riding Calou (Roven x Lauriston). Marc Bettinger (GER) \u2013 another fast rider \u2013 and Incroyable de Muze (Nabab de Reve x For Pleasure) gave it a good go, but after a fault in the combination the two of them slowed down eventually finishing 6th. Maria Bibikova went for safety, but still had to see a fence fall for her and Quasimodo (Quidam\u2019s Rubin x Corofino I), leaving them in 7th place.<\/p>\n
Last to go was Scott Brash with Hello Mr President, and the jump-off course seemed to suit them perfectly. After speeding through the finish line in 38,75 seconds, the pair ended as winners of the Oliva Nova Beach & Golf Resort Grand Prix leaving Swail to second and Belooussoff to third.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be here in Oliva for another week, and then I go to Bordeaux before I come back here for MET II. I really like being here, it is super facilities and every year you come back there is always improvement. Everything is close and the beach is so nice for the horses,\u201d Brash said about his stay at the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour.<\/p>\n
Photo credit \u00a9 Herv\u00e9 Bonnaud \/ www.1clicphoto.com. This photo may be used only in relation to this press release and must include photo credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Spring MET 2018 kicked off this week at Oliva Nova Equestrian Centre, and concluded with Sunday\u2019s 30,000 Euro Grand Prix presented by Oliva Nova Beach and Golf Resort. Just like in Thursday\u2019s Gold Tour it was one of the world\u2019s very best that went off with the top honours: Scott Brash (GBR) on the 9-year-old Hello Mr. President (Comme d\u2019Api VD Hacienda x breeding unknown)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-met-2018-en-2","category-spring-met-2018-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21084,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18668\/revisions\/21084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}