Pau, France—Oct. 25
So it can be done. Michael Jung can be defeated.
Frenchman Astier Nicolas had an excited French crowd on the edges of their seats as he scored his first ever four-star CCI win in fantastic style at Les 4 Etoiles de Pau, the opening leg of the FEI Classics™ 2015/2016.
With the hopes of his home country resting on his shoulders and Pau’s show jumping course proving as influential as ever, Nicolas, who was third after cross-country, rode a skillful clear round on Piaf de B’neville in the jumping arena.
This put serious pressure on 19-year-old Emily King of Great Britain and Olympic, World and European No. 1 Jung of Germany, who was down to one horse after withdrawing the overnight leader Halunke FBW at the final horse inspection, and, to Nicolas’s evident disbelief, they each had a fence down.
King dropped from second to fourth on Brookleigh, but it was a brave effort at her first CCI****, and Jung, who has made very few mistakes this year, slipped from first to second on fischerRocana, losing the win by just 0.9 penalty after the mare hit the third fence.
Tim Price of New Zealand and the Dutch-bred Wesko, a reliable horse in the final phase, having started his career in a jumping yard, rose from fourth to third with an immaculate clear round.
U.S. combination Katie Ruppel and Houdini concluded their European debut with a 33rd place finish.
Ruppel of Anthony, Fla., and her own Houdini began the competition with a nice dressage test to receive a score of 49.3.
She and the 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding gained valuable experience on cross-country day, completing Pierre Michelet’s challenging track that caused a fair amount of problems. The pair collected 67.6 time penalties and 40 jumping penalties for refusals at 6C, an angled house following a drop, and 16A, a bullfinch, but finished strongly.
Ruppel and Houdini laid down a solid show jumping round aside from a single rail and 3 time penalties for 7 faults, finishing on a score of 163.9.
Astier Nicolas is the first French rider to win the CCI**** at Pau since Nicolas Touzaint in 2007 and, to make it even more special, the city of Pau is his home, although he is a familiar face on the British circuit, having been based there for a while.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I wasn’t at all nervous because I had two riders in front of me and didn’t think I would win,” said Nicolas. “It’s very special to win my first four-star in France.”
The French crowd had even more to cheer about when two of the seven clear rounds came from fellow French rider Karim Florent Laghouag, who rose from eighth to fifth place on the lovely black stallion Entebbe de Hus and from 14th to seventh on Punch de l’Esques.
The young German rider Claas Hermann Romeike, watched anxiously by his 2008 Olympic individual gold medalist father, Hinrich, also kept a cool head, jumping clear on Cato 60 to rise seven places to sixth at only his second CCI****.
Tim Lips of the Netherlands slipped five places to 11th when Bayro incurred 12 jumping faults and Andreas Dibowski of Germany was lucky to only drop two places to 12th when FRH Butts Avedon had four fences down. Paul Tapner of Australia also departed from the top 10, falling from seventh to 17 with an unfortunate six rails down on Indian Mill.
As well as the sad departure of Halunke FBW from the horse inspection, Bill Levett of Australia also withdrew Shannondale Titan, 10th after cross-country. Thirty-three horses completed the competition.
Nicolas, 26, is the youngest four-star winner this year. He represented France at pony, junior and young rider level and won an individual silver medal in the Young Rider Europeans at Waregem (Belgium) in 2009. His previous best four-star result was sixth at Pau in 2012 on Jhakti du Janlie.
Riding Piaf de B’neville, he won the Under-25 CCI*** at Bramham (England) in 2012 and was a member of France’s senior bronze medal team at the 2013 FEI European Eventing Championship in Malmö (Sweden).
The combination finished runner-up at Saumur CCI*** this year. He was also recently second in the young horse CIC*** at Blenheim and ninth at Boekelo CCI*** (the Netherlands) on Spes Addit’Or.
Nicolas is from Pau in France but has been based for some years in Gloucestershire in Great Britain, where he came to study for a degree in equine management at the West of England University at Hartpury College.
Piaf de B’neville is a 12-year-old Selle Francais gelding by Cap de B’neville.
Final results
ADVERTISEMENT
1 Astier Nicolas/Piaf de B’neville (FRA) 38.5 + 0 + 0 = 38.5
2 Michael Jung/fischerRocana FST (GER) 35.4 + 0 + 4 = 39.4
3 Tim Price/Wesko (NZL) 40.0 + 0 + 0 = 40.0
4 Emily King/Brookleigh (GBR) 38.3 + 0 + 4 = 42.3
5 Karim Florent Laghouag/Entebbe de Hus (FRA) 40.6 + 2 + 0 = 42.6
6 Claas Hermann Romeike/Cato 60 (GER) 44.1 + 3.2 + 0 = 47.3
7 Karim Florent Laghouag/Punch de l’Esques (FRA) 49.3 + 0 + 0 = 49.3
8 Sarah Bullimore/Valentino V (GBR) 45.8 + 0 + 4 = 49.8
9 Clare Abbot/Euro Prince (IRL) 49.1 + 1.6 + 0 = 50.7
10 Sir Mark Todd/NZB Campino (NZL) 43.3 + 0 + 8 = 51.3
Full results: www.event-pau.fr.
