The 11 fence, 13 effort 1.50m Waverley TBS Christmas Speed Stakes saw 28 line up for starters orders as the snow began to fall outside in London this evening.

The starting list saw British riders lining up next to Australian, Swiss, American, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, Austrian, Norwegian, Irish, French, German and Egyptian riders making it a truly international show.

The start lists include Olympic medalists, World Championship medalists and the current European Individual Gold medalist so the week will no doubt bring us some spectacular jumping with wonderful horses jumping courses designed by Frank Rothenberg and Bob Ellis.

Olivier Guillon for France was first out and they lowered two fences on their journey to finish with 8 faults in 61.95secs.

Crowd favourite, American Laura Kraut and her huge jumping grey gelding Cedric - pictured below left - wowed as always jumping huge over every fence, and just doing it for fun, but with so much

time in the air, they did collect 2 time penalties for their work today.

For the moving picture of Laura Kraut and Cedric click here

Coming out on his new youngster Uraya2, Albert Zoer - pictured below - found himself being bucked around the arena prior to starting bringing the comment from Geoff Billington of "you are supposed to break them in before you bring them to the show Albert"

But once through the start flags this 8 year old mare by Farmer out of a Zeno mare got started she jumped a super clear round in 55.38secs giving them 5th place.
The next clear round came from Sweden's Svante Johansson in the saddle of the 9 year old mare, Caramell KS giving them 10 th place money of £300.

Steve Guerdat, for Switzerland gave us the next clear round with Come On Girl, a 7 year old mare by Come On out of a Carthago mare - but they were some 4 seconds out of money tonight.

This mare was incredibly impressive over her fences and Steve is known for his brilliant producing of young horses - no doubt he is teaching her the craft and as Geoff Billington commented "teach a young horse to jump first, before bothering about the clock!"

Then at combintation 19 we had a run of clears - started by the laconic Italian Natale Chiaudani who put up a time of 59.02secs which still left Zoer in the lead at this stage.
Britain's Ben Maher and the huge 10 year old grey gelding Wonderboy, took the lead resoundingly when they jumped clear in 53.65secs. Wonderboy makes these 1.50m fences look like a 1.10m playtime track - he does it so easily and is guided to perfection by his jockey.

Geoff Billington then made his way from the commentary box to the arena to take up the saddle of Uppercut, an 8 year old Nairobi/Zeolit gelding that he is bringing on to the next level now.

Geoff commented afterwards that he was delighted with this young horse who jumped clear in 65.95secs which left him just out of the money clocking up the same time as Steve Guerdat.

Ireland's Billy Twomey were the next to go and they produced the 4th clear in a row in a time of 59.31secs giving them £300 to put in the pocket.

Billy in the saddle of Camilla Berger's 12 year old Calido/Cassini gelding Montanus Colorado looked super as they danced their way around the track this evening.

For moving pictures of Billy Twomey click here

Getting down to the last 8 riders and Michael Whitaker (winner of the 1.50m Christmas Pudding Stakes earlier in the day) and his own Insul Tech Amai put in a good try but with their time of 54.47secs the lead still belonged to Ben Maher.

Reining Individual European Gold medalist, Ken Staut gave us a super clear round and he did come in faster than Michael Whitaker but not as fast as Ben Maher.

Pictured right - Kevin Staut and the 11 year old gelding Pinball 4 by Pinocchio out of a Debutant mare.

Click here for moving pictures of Kevin Staut.

Marc Houtzager and Uppity also produced a clear round in 56.06sec giving them £700 in the pocket for their eventual 6th place.

Abdel Said for Egypt is not only a crowd favourite but one of the riders favourites - at just 20 he has a wicked sense of humour and appreciates the humour

of the many greats of the sport who have taken him under their wing - and it was last year at Olympia that he was nicknamed The Flying Carpet and today Billington spoke of how this young man was well versed in speed classes, giving it his every breath to go as fast as possible!

Watch this moving picture by clicking here to see Billington's response to Said's carefully ridden round which saw him lower just one fence for four faults in the careful time of 60.80secs.

Last to go and the only one who could take the win from Ben Maher, is no stranger to winning speed classes - Robert Whitaker and Lacroix 9 - and without scrubbing the ears off the horse, he easily took on the course and when they broke the finish beam the fences were all in place with a time of 52.82secs and took the £3,000 prize money.

Ben Maher had to be satisfied with second place money of £1,800 today and Kevin Staut took home the £1,200 for third place.

For more moving pictures

Click here for Cian O'Connor for Ireland - riding the 10 year old gelding, Splendour 2 by Lester out of a Marinier mare.

Click here for Edwina Alexander for Australia - riding the 8 yer old mare Nellypso des Horts by Quidam de Revel out of a Le Tot de Semilly mare.

The Whitakers certainly were shouting in the bar tonight after winning 3 out of 3 - Ellen winning the first class, Michael the second class and Robert the 3rd and final class for Thursday.

 
Don't forget to become a fan of jumpingaround.com on Facebook to see all the behind the scenes pictures which are just for fun!

And while you are online and looking at things of interest don't forget to head to DoneDeal.ie where you will find all things horse related as well as everything else you might think you want!
Back to News Index