Tom McEwen and JL Dublin take the CHIO Aachen lead. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
While this evening’s showjumping phase at CHIO Aachen’s CCIO4*-S may not have been enormously difficult by the numbers – 20 of the 44 starters jumped clear rounds, with 17 of those doing so inside the time, and just 40 rails falling throughout the breadth of the class – it certainly was influential on the leaderboard. That’s because this morning’s dressage scoring was more than a touch reminiscent of that at Luhmühlen a couple of weeks ago: just nine pairs were awarded sub-30 marks, and tenth through 35th place sitting within the scope of five penalties. And so if a pair were to pick up a time penalty or two – or, heaven forbid, a rail – it would cost them dearly.
Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It was the former, rather than the latter, that saw our first-phase leaders, World Champions Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir relinquish the top spot and hand it, instead, to teammates Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. They opted to play it just a touch safe in the spooky Turkish Airlines Stadium, with its 40,000 seats, its busy, bustling arena, and its capacious spookiness, and while that allowed them to pin down a classy round without any jumping penalties, it did see them add two penalties for finishing five seconds over the time allowed. Now, they head into cross-country in third place – Germany’s Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH, last year’s two-phase leaders, step up to second after a penalty-free round – but they’re not far from that top spot, even so: they’re just 1.2 penalties, or three seconds, behind first place.
Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom, for his part, was delighted to get the job done with twelve-year-old Holsteiner ‘Dubs’, who he inherited from fellow British rider Nicola Wilson in the latter part of last year.
“He jumped fantastically, to be honest,” says Tom. “He loved the main arena, which is always great, because you’d be hard-pressed to find a better championship-style arena. It’s amazing to get in there — it’s very open and flowing. I found that this year there wasn’t so many turn backs. It wasn’t too technical.”
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom finished third here last year with long-time partner Toledo de Kerser, but found that this evening’s course had a very different feel to the one he’d jumped last year, which was much more centre-weighted in the arena, maximising tight lines and turns.
“I thought maybe it was a bit easier this time, but sometimes with good horses, like Dubs, it can lure you in a little bit,” he says. “And he was jumping so well that it did lure me in a bit, because I decided to take a stride out and go to the planks at seven on five strides. I’d already told Dicky [Waygood, British team performance manager] that I had a fear that I might do something like that. I landed from six and thought, ‘I’ll sit up and get the six’, but then when I saw the five, I thought, ‘well, I might as well keep going!’ Luckily, he’s got plenty of scope and actually, that nearly made him more aware of the course, because he was like, ‘what are you doing?!’ He jumped amazing – he’s a pleasure to ride, and I’m looking forward to being in this position tomorrow.”
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom and Dubs haven’t yet celebrated the first anniversary of their partnership, but already, they’ve finished second at Boekelo’s CCI4*-L last October – their first international outing together – and second at Kentucky CCI5* this spring. At each milestone, Tom has been able to chart the progression in their communication levels as they adjust to one another.
“This morning’s test was the same test as I did at Boekelo, and the difference between tests was near enough polar,” he says. “It’s just learning small quirks. He’s the nicest, calmest, coolest person but there’s a few things I’ve learned. One is that he does actually need a bit more work than I thought – he sort of lures you into allowing him to have an easy time , and actually, he just needs a little bit of work. It’s all been about getting to know him as a person, and he’s been amazing, so we’re starting to get there. This is another step in our learning curve.”
Whatever happens tomorrow, Tom is counting it all as a positive – because win or learn, he knows the ‘five-star short’ course will help him reach the next level of communication and partnership with ‘Dubs’.
“While we came here as a learning experience, we did so knowing that we can be very competitive at the same time – it’s just putting those two together,” he says pragmatically.
Will Coleman and Off The Record. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Seven of the newly-reformed top ten put faultless rounds on the board: beyond our new top two – who have just a tenth of a penalty between them and thus absolutely no margin for error tomorrow – we saw New Zealand’s Tim Price do the same with his World Champs bronze medallist Falco, which allowed them to retain their fourth place standing; 2021 winners Will Coleman and Off The Record did it, which pushed them from seventh to fifth and now has them best of the US contingent; pathfinder and young German rising star Libussa Lübbeke did it without the benefit of any rounds to watch first, which boosts her and Caramia 34 from ninth to sixth, and her fellow Warendorf student Calvin Böckmann from thirteenth to eighth with Altair de la Cense; and finally, France’s Gireg le Coz did it with his five-star ride Aisprit de la Loge, which saw them step up from twelfth to seventh.
Tamie Smith and Mai Baum. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The spooky, busy arena with its technical lines and big, square efforts did exert its influence on some otherwise excellent jumpers, though: Tamie Smith and Mai Baum, arguably one of the very best in the field in this phase, knocked the planks at fence seven, which fell just twice throughout the class – and that was enough to drop them from fifth to ninth.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Miks Master C. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Miks Master C (owned by Ocala Horse Properties and Deborah Palmer) also picked up a rail at 10a, the first of two back-to-back doubles (the course had no treble combination, interestingly, but instead featured three doubles; two of these came consecutively at the tail end of the course, causing ten rails – 25% of the phase’s tally – among them.) That, plus her 0.8 time penalties, saw her move from first-phase sixth to two-phase fourteenth.
US individuals Dan Krietl and Carmango, too, had two rails – the fourth, and the first part of the first double at 5a – which saw them slip from 31st to 35th going into cross-country.
Phillip Dutton and Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Phillip Dutton was able to lay down a fault-free round for the US with Z, who’ll be the team pathfinder across the country tomorrow; they now sit eighteenth, up from 24th, thanks to their efforts.
The top ten going into tomorrow’s cross-country.
Though Aachen’s ‘Nations Cup’ isn’t actually a Nations Cup – that is, it’s not part of the official FEI series, which counts towards coveted rewards such as a team qualification for Paris. But even though it can’t be used to get that job done (and, actually, it couldn’t anyway; every nation with a team entered here is already heading to next year’s Olympics), it’s still seriously important, because it’s a chance to see how some iteration of each country’s A-team stacks up against its closest competitors.
With all that in mind, is it even worth mentioning that the Brits retain their first-phase lead going into tomorrow’s cross-country. Hardly: we all already know that they’re on extraordinary multi-year form, even if Pratoni didn’t quite go to plan for them as a team. (For what it’s worth, though, if Oliver Townend had had even half the rails he’d had, they’d have won gold, which might be a bit of an if-my-grandmother-had-wheels-she’d-be-a-bike sort of argument, but it does prove just how fine the margins are between medals and nothing that one round can make such an enormous difference, and it can, as such, hardly be held against the Brits as a loss of form.) Today, just one of their riders – Gemma Stevens, aboard the young, talented Flash Cooley – tipped a rail, giving them an aggregate score of 80.8 after two phases, which puts them 8.3 penalties, or twenty seconds, ahead of now-second-placed Germany, who stepped up a placing after three clears. The home nation did suffer some disappointment: Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K, eighth after dressage, became the team drop score and slid to 24th after knocking two rails.
New Zealand, too, climbed a spot and now sit third, taking full advantage of an open door left by the US team, who moved from second after the first phase to fourth after the second, though by a small margin: between second and fourth place, there’s just two penalties, or five seconds tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s cross-country, designed by Rudiger Schwarz, begins at 10.00 a.m. local time (9.00 a.m. BST/4.00 a.m. EST). It’ll all be streamed live via ClipMyHorse.TV, and we’ll be bringing you the low-down and analysis, plus chats with plenty of the riders, after the action wraps. Stay tuned tonight, too – we’ll have a preview of what’s yet to come heading your way soon. Until then: Go Eventing!
The team standings after showjumping in CHIO Aachen’s Nations Cup.
EN’s Coverage of CHIO Aachen is brought to you with support from Kentucky Performance Products and Ocala Horse Properties.
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