Julien Gonin and the 9-year-old mare Une Etoile Landaise (Balougran x Socrate de Chivre) set the tone on behalf of the hosts, and easily won the 1.45m Prix Mercedes-Benz – the feature class of the day. The local rider went in first, and was one of the nine riders to go clear. However, none of his opponents were able to find the way to beat his time of 66,81 seconds without putting a pole down in this technical class build by Uliano Vezzani.
“I’m very pleased to win the opening class today! It’s always a great pleasure to compete here, as a local – I’m practically at home. I jumped like it was a warm-up and there were a lot of faults after me. My mare jumped well, all was good for me, it’s a good start!” said Gonin.
Home riders Jacques Helmlinger and Alexandre Fontanelle were also rewarded by climbing on the second and third steps of the podium on this opening day of competition.
Click here for the results