Janou Blakeman and Granntevka Prince claim 2** victory at Bicton

The popular veteran event horse Granntevka Prince headed off his much younger rivals to claim two star victory at Bicton Arena International at the weekend. Janou Bleekman, 20, from Cullompton, rode Gerry and David Mills’ 16-year-old to win the prestigious class and was thrilled with the success saying she hoped the performance would be enough to earn them selection onto the Dutch Young Rider team for September’s European championships. After a superb dressage test put them in pole position they jumped a beautiful clear showjumping and then jumped fast and accurately across country where time penalty-free rounds proved elusive for the 45 combinations who completed. “The time is always tight at Bicton with plenty of turns and hills. It was a great course to ride though and I tried to go as fast as I could. I was early to go and then it was a case of waiting to see if I had gone fast enough. He really deserves a win like that and I hope it is enough for us to be selected,” said Janou who has benefitted from dressage training with Anna Ross and jumping with Sir Mark Todd. She explained: “Last year our dressage wasn’t really up to scratch so the lessons have made a huge difference. I’ve started warming him up a bit longer for the dressage as he still gets quite excited and he can be cheeky if I haven’t worked him long enough. He went in and he felt really good. He was listening to me and focused on what we were doing. It felt like a really good test.” Having taken the lead after the dressage, Janou was aware other riders were chasing her heels, including Pippa Funnell on Billy Walk On who finished 1.1 penalties behind in second to claim the best seven-year-old prize. Pippa was also third on MGH Grafton Street with Kitty King riding the consistent Vendredi Biats into fourth. “It was fantastic to win, especially as [his owners] Gerry and David came along to watch him. They are hugely supportive and it was lovely that they were there too. Bicton is like our second home and we are always here schooling during the winter. It’s lovely to win at our local event,” said Janou. Tom Jackson headed the CIC1* class with the six-year-old mare Santana II jumping a double clear and finishing on the optimum time to win on their dressage score of 42.1 and Millie Dumas took the lead after the dressage riding the nine-year-old mare Catheryn but 3.6 time faults across country dropped them down to second. The mare will have one more run this season in the six-year-old championships at Osberton. “She’s done very well this season, but there is no point in doing too much with her,” said Kent-based Tom who also headed a novice class with the gelding PSH Romeo. “We came to Bicton’s spring event and liked it so much that we decided to come back. I’m glad we did as apart from a small blip with one of the five horses I ran, they all went very well and we came home with a huge haul of prizes, like a year’s supply of horse feed, vouchers and champagne.” Coral Keen, who is based near Devises in Wiltshire, scored a brace of wins with her homebred Total Belief winning a novice section and Cascadelle the intermediate. “Total Belief is a lovely horse who always tries her hardest and wants to please. I’ve taken her slowly as I want to make sure all the foundations are very firmly laid but she has a great future ahead of her,” said Coral. Cascadelle, who last year won back to back one star classes at Gatcombe and Waregem, kept a clean sheet after the dressage to take the win from dressage leader Tom Jackson on Courvoisier. He added showjumping and cross country time penalties to his leading dressage score dropping him down to tenth. “They have done such a super job on the ground that I could take the handbrake off today,” said Coral. “Cascadelle is only a seven-year-old but she’s developing into a really good horse and is a hugely exciting prospect for the future.” The open intermediate went the way of Blyth Tait riding Xanthus III with Phoebe Locke claiming the under 21 section on Cooley Challenger. BE100 winners were Kirsty Johnston on Lux Zen, Emily Young-Jamieson riding Shannondale Carlina, Abbie Hughes on Gecole M and Emma Jane Matthews on Newgate Times. Jess Rimmer was the under18 BE100 winner on Irish After Shock. Bicton Arena manager Helen West said: “It was a super event and we were pleased to see so many top names riding here. We’re also very grateful to all our sponsors who include Rathbones Investments, Equine H, Exeter Racecourse, Everys, Gain Horse Feeds, Devoucoux, Horse Heaven and Redpost Equestrian and Kastner Volvo providing the courtesy cars. They all helped ensure the riders were rewarded with some great prizes.”