"Vive le France!" for Epaillard at Saut Hermés

At this weekends Saut Hermès the creme de la creme of the horse world is gathering in Paris to jump under the VIP atmosphere of Le Grand Palais. And in this afternoon  1.50m class against the clock it was once again a French rider that claimed the victory for his home crowd. Julien Epaillard came into the arena with Cristallo A LM, a holsteiner gelding by Casall to beat the other world class riders.

The pair has been on quite a roll lately taking a win on in the CSI4* of Dortmund last weekend and taking home several victory's in Oliva. Now two crossed the finish line in 59.28 seconds and claimed the price ahead of Daniel Deusser. The number one rider in the world had to give in to Epaillard by a full second. Aboard his  Equita van't Zorgvliet (by Cassini I) Deusser cleared the course in 50.51 seconds. The third spot also got claimed by a home rider. This time it was Simon Delestre and his Hermes Ryan (v. Hugo Gesmeray) followed in 61.30 seconds.

Belgian rider Olivier Philippaerts showed his class with H&M Challenge v. Begijnakker Z (v. Chellano Z). The stylish rider that is sponsored by fashion brand H&M stopped the clock at 61.71 seconds.  Dutch European and World team champion Michael van der Vleuten closed the top five ranking with a clear round in 62.62 seconden aboard his VDL Groep Arera C (v. Indoctro).

Go here to see all the results.