Text © World of Showjumping
The Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Western European League 2024/2025-season resumed at the 2025-edition of the Longines CHI Classics Basel on Sunday, and it was France’s Julien Epaillard and his home-bred Donatello d’Auge (Jarnac x Hello Pierville) that went out on top after besting a field of 40 horse-and-rider combinations in the CSI5*-W 1.60m Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ of Basel presented by Bank J. Safra Sarasin.
As pair number five out, Epaillard and the 12-year-old gelding were the first to deliver a clear over the first-round track – counting 13 obstacles and 17 efforts with a time allowed of 71 seconds – set by the course designer duo Gerard Lachat (SUI) and Gregory Bodo (FRA). In the end, a total of eight horse-and-rider combinations out of the 40 at start cleared their way into the jump-off, but when Ireland’s Michael Duffy opted to withdraw the 13-year-old Claptonn Mouche (Conrad x Elan de la Cour) it was left to be a battle of seven.
First out, Epaillard set the time to beat to 39.52 seconds without taking the option of an inside turn to the double – a route others tried and failed. Eventually, only the top three managed to deliver a double clear, with Epaillard and Donatello d’Auge taking the top honours, followed by Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) and his Olympic bronze medallist Beauville Z N.O.P. (Bustique x Jumpy des Fontaines) in second in 41.49, and Tim Gredley (GBR) aboard Imperial HBF (Glasgow-W vh Merelsnest) in third in 44.70. With the fastest time of the competition – 38.13 seconds – but on the expense of a fence down, home hero Martin Fuchs (SUI) and his 12-year-old Commissar Pezi (Commissario x Böckmann’s Lord Pezi) had to settle for the fourth place, while the 2024 Olympic team gold medallist Ben Maher (GBR) and the impressive Point Break (Action-Breaker x Balou du Rouet) took the fifth spot with a fence down in 39.58.
“My strategy was to stay within the top three,” Epaillard said following his win that saw him grow his World Cup-points with the maximum of 20. “I did not have so many World Cup-points prior to this and I really want to jump the final here in Basel. It is a nice show and every year better, and I imagine the World Cup Final will be a beautiful event so for me it was important to get points. When I came into the ring, I looked for the options, and it was very difficult – so I tried to put enough pressure on the others and stay within the top three.”
“Donatello is a special horse for us, for the family – we bred him,” Epaillard said about his horse. “He was the best horse in the world in 2023, while last season was a bit down for him. For the last couple of months I have felt him coming back into good form and that is why I am thinking about him for the World Cup Final.”
“Absolutely loved it,” third placed Tim Gredley said about his first time in Basel. “It has been a really good week, obviously today was an amazing day but I have been placed in almost every class; I really enjoyed it. It was something I thought about coming into the event, that I needed to get one more really good result, but I am very lucky to have a horse like Imperial who is so consistent jumping clear rounds. When I watched Julien go first, I thought if someone gives me 100 turns to try and beat him in a jump-off, I am not going to do it – so I just decided to go for another clear round and luckily the class kind of fell into place for me because all the big guys were having fences down trying to win it – as they do. Consistency has hopefully gotten me to the final rather than going every single week, so the strategy has paid off in that sense.”
“I thought it was a tough course, but good built,” second placed Maikel van der Vleuten told World of Showjumping. “The beginning had nice lines, the last part was difficult, a bit of a half-distance to the plank, then the double of oxers came quick, and the last line was difficult. The triple combination was quite hard for the horses with the colours – it was a tough track.”
“Beauville feels well at the moment, he ended last year very good in Madrid and La Coruna and then we gave him a few quiet weeks and did a nice national round last week,” van der Vleuten said about his horse. “This show, we jumped a 1.45m class on Thursday and it felt good so we decided to leave him; he has the experience now and I thought he jumped very easy today.”
With ten of fourteen legs in the Western European League 2024/2025-season now completed, the 2025-season continues in Leipzig (GER) next week, prior to stopping in Amsterdam (NED), Bordeaux (FRA) and Gothenburg (SWE) before returning to Basel for the final in April.
After the 10th leg of the season, Kevin Staut (FRA) has regained his lead in the Western European League, topping the overall standings with 70 points. Robert Whitaker (GBR) sits second with 60 points, followed by Gregory Wathelet (BEL) in third on 56, Hans-Dieter Dreher (GER) in fourth on 51 points and Pieter Devos (BEL) in fifth with 47 points.
The top sixteen horse-and-rider combinations at each of the fourteen qualifiers earn points, with the best eighteen from the overall standings in the WEL qualifying for the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final held in Basel, Switzerland, in April 2025.