Reactions After Brash' win in London

Reactions After Brash' win in London
Jan Tops, Founder and President Longines Global Champions Tour: "This is how you would write a perfect script. Of course in England, the home crowd is great, and you see that with many events where the national riders do miracles. Like last week we saw the same with Christian in Germany, he was amazing, and this week we saw the extra cheer for the home team, and it worked. And this year was special because the first and second were British it was a 600th of a difference, that’s amazing for the sport to see."

 

Scott Brash, winner: "I’m very happy with the day. Obviously, our thoughts are all with John, but it sounds like its good news for him going forward. I think it was even more important then, to try and get a British win and it’s great to get a one and two in the home leg. [Hello Forever is] an incredible horse, you have to be on your toes when riding him, but he’s an incredible horse. He jumps when you get there, he’s fast and he’s athletic. He’s got everything and yeah he gave his all today. I must say Ben did have me sweating there at the end! I saw a few horses went 8 strides one to two, but I didn’t feel it suited my horse. So, I was already going to go 9 one to two, and knew I was going to be a bit behind. So, I thought I needed a good turn, and kept it as fast as I could all the way home. I managed to see a good forward distance, and luckily Forever pricked his ears and really went for it."

 

Ben Maher, 2nd place: "I had a good start to the day with Don Vito, then decided to make the change. With Madame this was my second show on the horse. It hasn’t been working for me using the same horse in the GP, so I made the change and my horse jumped incredibly today. I don’t know what more I could have done in the jump-off. I said to Scott that maybe if I ate a little less last night then maybe I could have been quicker! Scott is one of the fastest riders in the world, and if I was going to be beaten by anybody, then for sure a home win is always good for the sport in our country. Like Harrie said, I can be biased, because we’re here in London but it's always great to ride here and see the support in London. I think it will only grow here, in the next few years. It's an amazing venue, everything is good for the horses and the riders - I really enjoyed it, and again, just congratulations to Scott."

Denis Lynch, 3rd place: "I’ve got two great horses so expectations are quite high for things to go well. I’m delighted with both horses. It’s not the quickest horse, we’re all aware of that, it went my way. I added less stride maybe here and there. The horse that came after me had a quicker horse across the fence. But I’m delighted with my horse, and on to the next one."

 

Harrie Smolders, LGCT Ranking leader: "I think in the first place we have to compliment the organisers of the show, for the first time in this setting, it’s beautiful and we saw an incredible level of show jumping. We had a number of clears, the horses like to be in this ring. They don’t feel pressure. With 9 out of the 10 best riders here in the world, you are going to get sport like this and it’s great."