THREE years ago in Tokyo, Germany’s Julia Krajewski made history when becoming the first female eventing Olympic champion with the now retired Amande de B’Neville, while Britain won team gold for the fourth time in their history.
It could feel somewhat like déjà vu in Versailles next week with a female favourite, while Britain once again look like the team to beat. Barring a major upset in the next few days, Krajewski won’t be defending her title, as she has been selected as the P alternate athlete with her recent Aachen winner Nickel 21.
Talking in individual terms, it is hard to look past Britain’s Ros Canter, closely followed by her teammate, Laura Collett. These two athletes are sat on two of the most exciting modern day event horses and Badminton winners.
Canter and 12-year-old Lordships Graffalo have been the talking horse of the last 12 months. They just missed out on bronze at the 2022 World Championships before winning Badminton in 2023, followed by the team and individual gold at the FEI European Championships in the same year. It’s worth noting, she won a second five-star last year in Pau with Izilot DHI.
The world number one and a world champion in 2018, Canter has all the attributes to add this final and biggest title to her name. This pair’s career best dressage score (21.3) came at the Europeans last year and they will be hoping to get as low as possible before the jumping phases, where Lordships Graffalo could be described as a ‘machine’. He has never had a cross-country penalty in his career, while jumping faults are few and far between.
Biggest rival
Perhaps Canter’s biggest challenger will be her teammate Laura Collett, with the 15-year-old gelding London 52. A star of the sport, London 52 has won three five-stars and was part of the gold medal- winning team three years ago in Tokyo. Arguably slightly ahead of Lordships Graffalo in the dressage, London’s flat record is 19.3 (2022 World Championships) and they hold two of the three best finishing records at five-star level – 21.3 (Pau 2020) and 20.3 (Luhmühlen 2023).
If London gets the upper hand in dressage, Lordships Graffalo shades him in the jumping. London ran out at the tricky slide combination at the 2022 World Championships, while they were awarded 15 penalties for missing a flag at last year’s Europeans.
It really is splitting hairs… Collett and Canter went head-to-head on their Olympic mounts at Bicton back in May, with Collett coming out on top, just one mark ahead of Canter in second.
Laura Collett and London 52 at the Longines CCI5*L at Luhmuhlen 2023 \ EquusPix Photography
Two-time champion
Two-time Olympic champion (2012 and 2016) Michael Jung is aiming to bounce back after a medal drought in recent years. The German maestro and the 16-year-old gelding fischerChipmunk FRH led after the dressage in Tokyo, but picked up 11 faults cross-country to put paid to their chances. Two years ago at the World Championship in Pratoni, they had gold at their fingertips before show jumping, only to knock two fences and slip to fifth. While at the Europeans last summer, they had a fall at the last water when also in the lead.
It’s been a lot of bad luck but Jung is still Jung, considered one of the best riders in the world and, if Chipmunk can live up to his reputation – he holds the lowest ever five-star finishing score (20.1) - they will most definitely be in the hunt for individual honours.
Ireland’s Austin O’Connor has earned his right to be talked about in individual terms following his phenomenal run of form, which includes winning the Maryland five-star last year, a first at the level for an Irish rider in 58 years. The Irish-bred Colorado Blue has been improving with every run and their second place finish at Bramham last month on 26.4 was the best Irish CCI4*-S finishing score outside of Ireland since 2008.
New Zealand’s Tim Price rides the 15-year-old gelding Falco in Paris. The pair won Pau five-star in 2021 on a finishing score of 22.5, and the individual bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Pratoni, where the team also won bronze. Last year, they won the CCI4*-S at Millstreet before the gelding was ruled out of the end of the season due to having a tumour removed. This pair started the year show jumping in Spain before finishing runner-up in the four-star long in Kronenberg.
Other notables include USA’s Caroline Pamukcu and the Justin Burke-bred nine-year-old HSH Blake (Tolan R x Kannan), who won individual gold at the Pan American Games last year. Britain’s third team member is none other than the Tokyo individual silver medallist, Tom McEwen with the 2021 European champion JL Dublin. The pair have been runner-up in three five-stars.
Another interesting name on the definite entries for Australia is Chris Burton, who took a hiatus from eventing for a few years to concentrate on show jumping and helped Australia qualify a show jumping team for Paris.
However, he took over the ride on Ben Hobday’s Shadow Man back in March for just six months with the Games in mind. They won on their final international run at Millstreet in May, finishing on their dressage score of 25.7.