The two 19-year-olds, Ireland’s Bertram Allen and Belgium’s Jos Verlooy, both made it to the fifth and final round of this knockout competition and jumped off against the clock over some fearsomely big fences.
Jos made a gutsy attempt to beat Bertram’s perfectly judged clear in 27.92 seconds but his horse Golden Horta just caught the final fence with his hind legs.
British rider Ben Maher, the H & M Leading Rider of the Show, and the senior rider of the seven, was out first, when Cloud Nine ll hit a fence in the second round. Martin Fuchs, son of international Swiss rider Thomas Fuchs, and Dutch rider Jur Vrieling departed in round three. Constant van Paesschen, son of Belgian team rider Stanny van Paesschen, lasted until the fourth round.
Bertram explained that he opted for the pathfinder slot in the draw because he had only had four days’ acquaintance with his ride, Aminko N. “I figured that as I don’t know the horse that well it would be best to go at the start of each round when the fences are lowest.”
Aminko N was produced, like Molly Malone and Wild Thing, by fellow Irish rider Billy Twomey, and was previously ridden by his stable jockey Beth Vernon. The Allen family own the horse jointly with Billy.
Bertram has had an astonishing year, winning the first round of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in France, the Longines Grand Prix at Dublin and the Longines FEI World Cup qualifier at Verona.
“It’s been a dream year with a lot of major highlights,” said Bertram, “but I’m not going to let it affect my riding. My plan for 2015 is to keep jumping the fences.”
Photo : Bertram at the Prize giving - Equnews.fr