The Stable Magazine - April 2016

Longines FEI
World Cup Final
Early Target
There were 35 starters when Great Britain’s Laura
Renwick decided to withdraw Bintang, and it was
Delaveau who set the early target over the 13-fence
track set by Spanish course designer Santiago
Varela. As Technical Delegate Louis Konickx said
tonight, it was a clever track with plenty of options
for the riders to choose from, and it presented a
great opening-day challenge resulting in a very
exciting competition.
Delaveau was second into the ring and broke
the beam with Lacrimoso in 66.96 seconds, but
Deusser was almost a half-second quicker when
twelfth to go. Philippaerts’ time of 66.94 seconds
was always going to keep him in the frame, but
Delestre blew the class wide open when stopping
the clock on 66.04 seconds and after that he was
the man to beat.
None came close until the penultimate rider,
Leprevost, set off with the 13-year-old stallion
which she has been specifically aiming at this
World Cup title. And Vagabond, whose pedigree
includes the super-stallion Vigo d’Arsouilles and
the great For Pleasure, showed his pure class when
cruising home effortlessly in 63.78 to shave more
than two seconds off her compatriot’s target time.
Not even the defending champion Guerdat could
challenge that when last to go, but there’s no
doubting the threat he will pose when the action
resumes tomorrow evening.
Amazing
Leprevost described her horse’s performance as
“amazing”, but she was already feeling fairly
confident after a good start to the week. She
brought Vagabond to the 2015 Longines FEI World
Cup Final in Las Vegas (USA) as a 10-year-old
and he finished second, so this is clearly a horse
that thrives indoors.
“He was very good in the warm-up two days
ago and also I was lucky to go at the end of the
competition today” she said tonight. “He has
improved a lot in the last year” she continued.
“He’s always been good to ride, he has a super
character and a lot of scope. Initially my problem
with him was control, but we have done a lot of
dressage now so I have no problem with control
and we are really good together - I’m very happy!”
she added.
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