In Rouen, Stefan Eder deprives Valentin Besnard of a double for two hundredths of a second!
In front of packed stands, Stefan Eder won the CSI 4* Grand Prix of Équi Seine this afternoon at the Parc des expositions de Rouen. In the saddle on Condaro, the Austrian emerged victorious from a jump-off at twelve, ahead of two hundredths of a second Valentin Besnard, defending champion and second on the very promising Dynasty of Beaufour, and half a second Pénélope Leprevost, third with Bingo del Tondou.
Two hundredths of a second. A tiny difference, imperceptible to the naked eye, and which the Duel, the traditional weekly section of GRANDPRIX.tv, will make it possible to appreciate in the days to come. Two hundredths of a second. Almost nothing. However, it can change a lot of things in the life of a rider, made up of a few memorable victories and so many other great performances that are quickly forgotten. For Stefan Eder, the lucky winner of the Équi Seine CSI 4* Grand Prix, contested this afternoon in Hall 1 as full as an egg, these two hundredths of a lead represent 28,750 euros, probably to be shared with the owner of Condaro, Victoria Max-Theurer, great Austrian dressage champion, and a hundred ringing and stumbling points in the Longines world ranking of riders. For Valentin Besnard, winner of this event last year, these two hundredths behind mean twenty points less and 5,750 euros less than his rival.
The Norman will recover from it, he whose greed is certainly not the primary fuel, but he blamed himself for leaving the track, believing that he could have gone faster and kept his title. Going to bed tonight, he will be able to meditate above all on the path he has traveled in the past year, going from the status of surprise winner, with Beau Gosse du Park, a horse whose talent he had been molding for three and a half years – and since then ridden by Belgian Grégory Wathelet – second, almost without apparent emotion, with Dynastie de Beaufour, an excellent mare he has only been riding since April. There is no doubt that his mastery and the qualities of his nine-year-old nugget, born at Éric Levallois, caught the eye of Édouard Coupérie, who founded the federal technical framework in this CSI 4* punctuating the 2022 exercise of the major French show jumping events.
Beyond these considerations, the Rouen Grand Prix cannot be reduced to a duel. Figures again: fifty couples at the start, from two qualifiers deployed and having left no less than twenty-five riders at the door; a technically demanding course by Grégory Bodo; and twelve faultless at the end of the initial lap, that is to say a hair less than a quarter, which is accepted as a completed contract for the course designer. Bodo, professional work, one would be tempted to say. Like the organization of this event, which progresses from year to year, whether in terms of its sports programme, the reception of horses and riders, which now benefits from a third working , of the staging, considerably improved thanks to an investment in lighting, which has become capital in interior, and award ceremonies, more in the spotlight of equines and grooms. At Équi Seine, an association that has always been supported by passionate volunteers, in every sense of the word, on has no oil, but on has ideas… and more ideas!
Cédric Hurel has tried everything!
Unlike last year, when the jump-off of this Grand Prix run in the colors of the Normandy region had taken the form of a sudden death extension, we were treated to a more exciting final against the clock. Belgium’s Annelies Vorsselmans opened the hostilities cleanly, posting an impeccable and risk-free double clear round with Iron Man 15, which earned her fifth place. The performance of Mathieu Billot, who cannot be blamed for having tried his luck, was less harmonious with Défi de Boisy, nine years old, who disconnected from Deauvillais at the start of the oxer 3. After this refusal, the couple, finally twelfth, still sinned on the vertical 4a, entry of the triple reduced in double, then on the vertical 5, last difficulty which was going to become a justice of the peace.
The Belgian Gilles Thomas was the first to panic the stopwatch with Feromas van Beek, but his audacity cost him a fault on the vertical 16, placed in the middle of this short course, ranking sixth. Two faults for Christoph Obernauer, the first of the two Austrians in this jump-off, penalized on the vertical 8 and the oxer 4b with Kleons Renegade, eleventh. It was then that Valentin Besnard delivered his remarkable performance, riding a Dynasty that seemed to know where it had come from and where it had to go. In the process, Stefan Eder did the same, although in a slightly different style, on a powerful Condaro and at the orders, with this advantage of two hundredths that we know. Will Condaro be the successor to Chilli van Dijk, who had won a major event in the 2011 edition of Équi Seine, which then declared itself in June at Canteleu, and enabled the Austrian to take part in the Europeans of 2009 and 2011?
There seemed to still be a little room, but Julien Épaillard is not, winner of the second stage of the World Cup a few minutes earlier in Madrid, wants ! Thus, the big day for Cédric Hurel has not yet come, he took risks without counting, to the delight of the spectators, but who conceded a big, big fault on the last one with Fantasio Floreval. Credited with the best time, this formidable couple finished in a very good fifth place. Same cause, to a lesser extent, and same consequences for the Briton William Funnell, seventh with Equine America Billy Picador, and Mélanie Cloarec, eighth on Fais Toi Belle du Seigneur*Pléville. Perfect copy, on the other hand, for Pénélope Leprevost and Bingo del Tondou, as brilliant as in Lyon last month but slower by tenths of a second than the two duettists mentioned above, hence a third place full of promises of tomorrow which sung.
Tenth, Reynald Angot and Untouchable Gips*HDC, they proved to be less lively than in the initial round, stumbling on 8 and 4a. So goes the sport. Finally, the Belgian Anthony Wellens mortgaged any chance of success by failing at vertical 6, the second obstacle of this final, with Domenco, ninth, which nevertheless remains the best performance of the career of this unknown pilot of twenty -nine years. Enough to return with the feeling of a duty well done in Grimbergen and… to uncap one, to the health of all those who made this beautiful Norman Sunday come alive and lived.
All the Equi Seine courses will be available on GRANDPRIX.tv