Edited press release from Hubside Jumping

France had to wait until the seventh Grand Prix of this extraordinary 4* and 5* season of the Hubside Jumping in Grimaud to record a victory. Nicolas Delmotte and Ilex VP (Diamant de Semilly x Darco) were the winners, ahead of compatriot Titouan Schumacher on Atome Z (Amadeus Z*Brimbelles x Toulon), and of the Italian rider Emanuele Gaudiano on Chalou (Chacco-Blue x Baloubet du Rouet). 

Seven of the thirty-six riders competing made it to the very exciting jump-off. Turkey’s Derin Demirsoy was first to go with Koblenz vd Middelstede (Diktator van de Boslandhoeve x Muscaris d'Ariel) and jumped double clear in a time which seemed beatable. France's Mégane Moissonnier was next to go with Bracadabra (Pacific des Essarts x Couleur Rubin) and shaved off almost three seconds, to take over the lead. Guadiano and Chalou then smashed the time to beat when stopping the clock at 41.96 seconds. 

Schumacher jumped a perfect round with Atome Z and took off three tenths of a second on the Italian rider’s incredibly fast time to take over the pole position. Luciana Diniz and Vertigo du Desert (Mylord Carthago*HN x Robin II Z) came dangerously close to Schumacher’s time, but had one pole down on the final fence.

At this stage of the class, the victory could only be for France or Brazil. With eight jumping faults, Brazil’s Pedro Veniss with Böckmanns Lord Pezi Junior (Lord Pezi x Quattro 7) were out of the running. The Grand Prix would well and truly be won by a French rider, either Titouan Schumacher or Nicolas Delmotte – last to go. The rider from France’s set off at a quick pace with his loyal Ilex VP and knocked off nine hundredths of a second on Schumacher's time to take the win.

“It was a really great Grand Prix," Nicolas Delmotte said after. "The first round’s track was really interesting. I was last to go in the jump-off, which is said to be a good position. But I saw that the riders that jumped clear were going faster and faster as the jump-off progressed, and that it was getting harder and harder to improve on the time to beat. I had to pull out all the stops but I honestly didn’t think that I could beat Titouan. There were already five riders who had jumped double clear, so I had to take all the risks. And so I was already taking risks on the first fence! I chose to ride the long distance at the start of the round in eight long strides and then everything went well afterwards. I felt that my horse was really in great shape, which made me feel confident. I took all the risks until the last line, as Titouan had already had a wonderful jump-off. As did Mégane Moissonnier and Emanuele Gaudiano. Ilex has proved he’s reliable once again. He’s back in fine form after being out last year for eight months. This summer, he took part in national classes, including those on the Grand National circuit, which I really like for preparing horses coming up through the ranks for high- level competition. He was second in Saint-Lô and third in Le Touquet. Next week, Urvose du Roch should be competing in Grimaud’s CSI5* Grand Prix. The Hubside Jumping is an extraordinary opportunity for us as riders: we’ll never be able to thank Sadri Fegaier enough for giving us the possibility to do our sport at high-level.”