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The Mediterranean Equestrian Tour\u2019s 2018 autumn edition got underway this week, with the \u20ac30.000 Grand Prix counting for the Longines Ranking as the highlight. With some of the world\u2019s very best riders on the start list \u2013 such as Scott Brash (GBR), Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (GER) and of course the winner himself \u2013 many met up to watch top sport in glorious sunny weather in Oliva Nova today.<\/p>\n
A total of eight horse-and-rider combinations managed to produce clears over the first round 1.45m track set by Great Britain\u2019s Mark Mcgowan. The time allowed turned out to be a big challenge, and no less than nine of the 50 pairs in the Grand Prix fell victim to the clock \u2013 keeping them out of the jump-off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the course designer did an excellent job today. He had a tight time allowed but got a perfect result in the end with eight clear rounds. I thought it was a fun class to finish the first week of the Tour here\u201d Ben Maher said after the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
First to return for the jump-off, Spain\u2019s own Ismael Garcia Roque produced another clear round on the 8-year-old mare Astoria JO (Kannan x Quidam de Revel) in 44.02 seconds \u2013 which eventually would put him in fifth place.<\/p>\n
One rider later, Roque was overtaken by Germany\u2019s Alexander Schill on Cruising 11 (Crawford 5 x Calato) \u2013 who crossed the finish line in 43.22 seconds. Schill\u2019s lead did not last for long though as France\u2019s Marie Hecart shaved the time down to 42.01 seconds after a blistering fast round on Vahinee (Lauterbach x Darco). Ireland\u2019s Niall Talbot also gave it a good go, but had to see himself pushing in between Schill and Roque with a time of 43.72 seconds.<\/p>\n
Coming in as second last to go, Maher produced a world class jump-off piloting the 8-year-old Cirus du Ruisseau Z (Chellano Z x Carthago Z) to a clear in 41.42 seconds \u2013 which would prove to be the winning round of the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest I did not see too much of the jump-off because I chose to warm up in the ring a bit further away from the main arena and from there I could not watch. I kept track of the times though, and luckily I could have a look at the rider before me\u201d Maher explained. \u201cCirus is relatively inexperienced at this level, although he has already won one two-star Grand Prix earlier this summer. He is a naturally fast horse though, and I thought if I just would keep the turns tight that would hopefully be enough \u2013 and luckily it was. I\u2019m very happy,\u201d Maher said.<\/p>\n
About his winning partner Cirus du Ruisseau Z, Maher said. \u201cHe is a lovely horse, and he has a great attitude \u2013 which is possibly the best thing about him. I still have to help him a bit out with certain things but what I like about him is that he is a real trier, and he is very brave\u201d.<\/p>\n
Topping the Longines Global Champions Tour overall this year after winning no less than three LGCT Grand Prix competitions in Madrid, Saint Tropez and Rome, Maher has had a fantastic season and is now in Oliva with some of Poden Farms\u2019 younger horses together with Emily Moffitt. Joining Maher in the jump-off today, Moffitt finished 6th \u2013 making it a great day for the Poden Farms-team. \u201cEmily has taken over Don Vito from me, and I\u2019m very happy to see them clicking now \u2013 sometimes that can take a bit time. Overall it has been a great week for our team!\u201d Maher said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here in Oliva with our next generation of horses. We are very lucky, we have some really nice 8-year-olds from Poden Farms coming up and hopefully they will be for the big sport in the future\u201d. Maher closed off.<\/p>\n
Pedro Veniss vencedor en el \u00faltimo Gran Premio CSI2* presentado por CHG en el Autumn MET 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autumn-met-2018-en","category-autumn-met-2018-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19495","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=19495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25351,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19495\/revisions\/25351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}