A living legend
Phillip Dutton moves up to bronze, while Astier Nicolas holds silver
and Sam FBW flies to gold with a fence in hand for Michael Jung
WILLIAM FOX-PITT had another lovely clear in the final barrage to move up from 18th to eventual 12th — jumping a clear when it doesn’t matter is so much easier than when it does.
This was the final time we will see Chilli Morning compete as he now retires to stud.
“Isn’t he lucky?” said William. “I think that’ll be the last time I ride him. It’s tempting because he’s well and sound to have another go, but he’s given me so much.”
Mark Todd had a clear with Leonidas II, which was unexpected given his team performance. They moved from 11th to seventh and Toddy was relieved, having considered withdrawing.
“If only he’d jumped like that in the first round — we just have to rue what might have been. It had gone so badly I didn’t want to leave it on that note,” he said. “I think it was the mere fact of having been in the arena before — he jumped how he normally jumps.”
Canada’s Rebecca Howard just had the final part of the treble at fence four down — the striding was extremely tight in this combination. She and Riddle Master finished 10th.
Mathieu Lemoine had another two down, but said the goal was simply to gather feedback for team-mate
Astier Nicolas.
The smart nine-year-old Don Geniro took a brick out of the blue wall at eight for Alex Hua Tian to finish eighth. His rider is a brilliant ambassador for the sport in China (see box, p40) and the FEI — he managed to say, “Don defined #Two Hearts [the FEI’s hashtag] at the last water” on cross-country day without sounding cheesy, which is quite a feat.
Boyd Martin had three down with Blackfoot Mystery to tumble from sixth after crosscountry to 16th. But the US fans were cheering again when Phillip Dutton earnt individual bronze, having just tipped off fence 4c with Mighty Nice.
“He’s bumped his stifle so he’s not quite as loose as usual,” said Phillip, who also had to contend with the curb chain coming undone as he came to the first fence on the team course.
Sam Griffiths pulled off another clear for eventual fourth on Paulank Brockagh.
“I had a tear in my eye as I came out because she tried so hard,” he admitted.
Ireland’s Jonty Evans, who moved up from 16th after crosscountry to ninth thanks to a fault-free day, finished his round pointing to Cooley Rorkes Drift in admiration and threatened to “cry again” if journalists asked him anything about the horse.
A clear would have given Clarke Johnstone the individual bronze, but Balmoral Sensation made up too much distance in the treble and he faulted there and at the final fence to finish in sixth place.
Chris Burton had a better round this time, but being shown the blue wall before he started clearly didn’t make Santano II any more comfortable with it. He took off a brick and then knocked the last as well for fifth.
The penultimate horse, Piaf De B’Neville, landed heavily on the back bar of the 1.30m high square oxer at fence three, which Astier put down to “rider error”, but he could afford this and his two time-faults and still keep the individual silver.
Michael Jung had said after taking the lead in the team leg: “I hope Sam’s still concentrating in the second round. He feels strong and powerful.”
And so it proved. It was more masterclass than tense finale as the living legend Sam cruised round to triumph with a fence in hand. H&H