On home ground, Ben Maher wins the London Grand Prix

Saturday evening, the fourteenth step of the Longines Global Champions Tour fell into the hands of the British rider, Ben Maher. On home ground, he realised the course best double clear with the great Explosion W, ahead of thirty-three others riders in 35.98 seconds. Maher’s win elevates him to second place on the current overall 2019 LGCT ranking behind the leader, Belgian’s Pieter Devos.

2012 Olympic champion Ben Maher won the very first edition of this London Grand Prix 5* in 2013 with Cella. Since then, only one non-British rider, the Swedish Rolf-Göran Bengtsson, managed to win with Casall Ask. The other three went to Scott Brash with three different horses. “The best win is to win at home,” said a delighted Maher, just out of the tracks. “To ride probably the best horse in the world is an incredible feeling. Explosion and I started the year a little slower this year and he’s had two GCT seconds, but I took all of the risks today. He felt incredible — in a different league — and deserved this win.”

The two Irish riders Shane Sweetnam and Darragh Kenny completed the top three, along with Alejandro and Classic Dream respectively. The first of the two duos will be able to leave for the European championship in two weeks’ time. For a few pairs, this competition was a sort of rehearsal for Rotterdam. It was the case for the Belgian Pieter Devos and Claire Z, tenth, or the German Christian Ahlmann et Clintrexo Z, twenty-first, both did well.  

At the same time as London LGCT, in the small town of Dinard in Brittany, France, a CSI 5* competition was held. And the French ruled the game, with five riders among the first six. The winning pair is Alexis Deroubaix with Timon D’Aure in 40.95 followed by Penelope Leprevost and Vancouver de Lanlore with a tiny time difference of four hundredth. Bronze medal went to a German pair, Daniel Deusser and Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z with 41.60.