Italy's Luca Maria Moneta won Thursday's opening CSI5* 1.45 competition at Jumping International de Dinard. Riding the 15-year-old gelding Connery (Cordobes II x Polydor), Moneta was the fastest one in this very competitive two-phase class coming in towards the very end to stop the clock at 31.99 seconds. 

Second place went to USA's Beezie Madden, who rode a beautiful round early on in the competition on Breitling LS (Quintero La Silla x Accord II) with a time of 32.47 seconds, while home rider Jerome Hurel followed close behind on 32.59 seconds riding Urano (Baloubet du Rouet x Kannan) to take third.

"I am very happy about my horse, I was just a little faster than everybody else, and it was good enough to win this class. Connery and I form a very strong pair, we know each other very well, I rode many classes with him. When I saw the leader was quite fast, I decided to go for it. I'd rather try to win and have a rail down, than clear the course and not be placed. My horse gave everything he had," said Moneta after.

Text and picture © World of Showjumping // Source quotes: Press release Jumping International de Dinard