Olivier Perreau brilliant in the 4*-W Grand Prix of Tetouan

Sixty-eight riders were at the start of the Grand Prix whose time was one of the pitfalls at the beginning of the race – in particular for the Moroccan rider Ali Al Ahrach who, despite his perfect round, was penalized by one time fault. Among them, only seventeen pairs, qualified for the second round. Unlike most of competitions, the scores had not been reset, so twelve competitors started their second course without any penalty.  

 The first double clear will be signed by Brazilian Felipe Amaral, riding Premiere Carthoes BZ, with a very good time of 49.08 seconds. With his performance, he put a lot of pressure on the other riders. The French delegation managed to qualify its five representatives in this round against the clock and two of them were faster than the Brazilian. Emeric George and his faithful Chopin des Hayettes, the pair who won the previous year’s Grand Prix de Rabat and Olivier Perreau, penultimate to start in the arena. The last one, faster as ever finally took the victory.

“This is the second year I’ve been to the Morocco Royal Tour, and I’m delighted to be back. The program is great, everything is well thought out for horses and riders alike. The course designer is really good. He concocted a technical and faulty course for us, but one without putting the horses in the red. I saw that Emeric was going very fast when I was waiting at the door, so I tried to do the maximum without pushing my mare too hard and by staying calm, because sometimes I take a little too much risk and make a mistake (laughs). My mare is fast, and I can trust her. She always wants to do the right thing. This is the fourth Grand Prix that the mare has won, in addition to the Saut Hermès she won last March. These performances really pulled me up. I was afraid it would be a stroke of luck, but my mare has been very regular all year round, I am really very happy. After the Nations Cup in Rabat and the Grand Prix in El Jadida, our next objective will be to get as fit as possible for the World Cup Grand Prix in Lyon,” said the French rider.

All results here