Visitors Brazil overcome top European teams at Nations Cup in France

After Samorin, Slovakia in April and now La Baule, there will be six more qualifiers for Division 1 over the coming months: St. Gallen, Switzerland, Sopot, Poland, Rotterdam, Falsterbo, Sweden, Hickstead, Great Britain and Dublin. Seven teams out of the ten in the Division will qualify for the Barcelona Final (with host Spain given an automatic bye), which was won last year by the Netherlands.

Indeed, World No.1 Show Jumper Harrie Smolders and his Dutch teammates were in La Baule this weekend for the 5* competition, which took place under blue skies in the coastal city, with other teams coming from Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Ireland, home side France and Canada (the latter also competing outside their regional league). And in the end, Smolders and Jur Vrieling, Frank Schuttert and Marc Houtzager came in a close second in the qualifier, finishing with a total of eight faults, ahead of third-place Switzerland (nine). The Netherlands thus collected the maximum points on offer towards the Final out of the six European nations present.

But it was Brazil – Luiz Felipe de Azevedo Filho, Felipe Amaral, Yuri Mansur and Pedro Veniss – who ended up pulling off a narrow victory (7 faults) after their anchor rider Veniss and his 14-year-old stallion, Quabri de l’Isle, rode clear in the second round. Under pressure, Veniss and Quabri were undoubtedly able to draw on their experience representing Brazilian teams over the years, including a fifth-place at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy, a fourth at the Pan-American Games in Toronto in 2015 and a fifth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. “Quabri is my very best friend,” Veniss said afterwards. “He has so much scope and always tries his best for me – that’s the greatest feeling in the world!”

After two qualifiers, Switzerland is on top of the divisional standings with 180 points, followed by Ireland with 145 and Spain with 115. The next qualifier is scheduled for May 31–June 3 in Switzerland.

In other high-profile events at the four-day competition in La Baule, France’s Patrice Delaveau and Aquila HDC won Friday’s Longines Grand Prix ahead of the United States’ Kent Farrington and Gazelle in second, while Colombia’s Rene Lopez and Destiny’s Child claimed the top prize in Saturday’s challenging CSIO5* Derby.