CO Wexford’s Bertram Allen made the perfect start to the 2017 Longines Global Champions Tour and League season in Mexico City last weekend.
The highest ranked Irish rider, at number 14 the world rankings, scorched to victory in the opening class of 2017, the five-star 1.45m two-phase competition, aboard Quiet Easy 4. Allen produced a superb round of jumping on the 13-year-old Quidam’s Ruben-sired gelding to cross the line in 26.37 seconds, finishing almost a second and a half ahead of Mexico’s Gonzalo Azcarragato riding Quite Nice (27.59). Allen collected €8,000 for his win.
A member of the winning Valkenswaard United Global Champions League team in 2016, Allen is back to defend his title for 2017 with new team mates – Marcus Ehning, Alberto Zorzi, Janika Sprunger and Sanne Thijssen.
Teaming up for the opening round in Mexico City, Allen and Zorzi got off to a flying start in the first round of competition last Friday. The league follows a new format this season.
Now officially approved by the FEI, the league takes place over two days instead of one, and riders can compete for Longines world ranking points.
The opening 1.50/1.55m class sees the teams carry their combined score through to the second day, which doubles as a qualifier for the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix, and takes place before the feature class.
TITLE DEFENCE
Kick-starting the defence of their title off to the best possible start, Allen rode Hector van d’Abdijhoeve to produce a masterful clear round, followed by Zorzi and Cornetto K producing another clear to leave the pair in prime position, securing the only team clear of the opening round.
The St Tropez Pirates team of Jerome Guery and Simon Delestre were in second place with just one time penalty, while three teams were tied on eight faults.
Leading going into Saturday’s final, Zorzi faulted once on course to drop Valkenswaard United into second place primarily after the St Tropez Pirates produced a clear round.
Bertram Allen also saw one pole fall when the extravagant grey stallion bucked going into the final line which caused them to have the penultimate fence down, but the unflappable Allen managed to negotiate the one remaining fence successfully and claim victory for Valkenswaard United with a team total of eight faults. The team picked up €26,432 for their first place.
The St Tropez Pirates finished in second place ahead of Chantilly Pegasus and Miami Glory, who both completed on 12 faults, but it was the Chantilly Pegasus team - which boasted the youngest rider combination of all the 18 teams – with Nicola Philippaerts (BEL) and Martin Fuchs (SUI), who claimed third spot due to their quicker time.
Speaking after, Allen said: “Following on from last year we knew how important it was to get off to a good start as it’s so competitive. We came here all set to go and were very good the first day, it was very big, and thankfully we could hold on to it.”
Commenting on the new format for 2017, GCL co-founder Jan Tops said: “The new format is fantastic for riders and horses. You are jumping two less classes and you have more possibilities, more options.
“The first round changed from the Grand Prix into the League final which is very interesting until the end, you saw how exciting it was. It’s very exciting until the last fence and it’s very easy to follow. Once you have a fence down there is no drop score which is much easier for the people to understand.”
Cian O’Connor will jump for Miami Glory this season, while Darragh Kenny joins Paris Panthers and Michael Kearins jumps for Moscow Bears. The next leg of the league takes place at the spectacular Miami Beach this weekend, April 13th-16th.