Horse & Hound’s coverage of the Liverpool International Horse Show is brought to you in association with Equestrian.com
Emanuele Gaudiano’s amazing run of form continued when the Italian rider took the Equerry Horse Feeds speed class with Cocoshynsky this afternoon (3 January), having already picked up the title in the opening class of the show on Friday (1 January).
Cocoshynsky only got as far as the second fence in yesterday’s 1.45m speed stakes before depositing Emanuele onto the floor.
“We had a little problem yesterday,” Emanuele told H&H. “I came too diagonally to the vertical and she didn’t understand what to do.”
Today the pair galloped home a huge 2.99 seconds ahead of their closest rivals; William Funnell built on last night’s success with Billy Congo, picking up second with another home-bred, the rising 13-year-old Billy Angelo (pictured below).
The chestnut gelding by Tangelo Van Der Zuuthoeve has jumped well throughout 2015, with top-three placings at CSI3, 4 and 5* level, including Olympia and Hickstead, and looked scopey and careful in this class.
Emanuele set his unbeatable target from an early draw, leaving the remaining riders scrambling to catch him. Fastest four-faulter was William Whitaker with Fandango, who was still two seconds adrift of the Italian rider. A fence down cost William seven places dropping him into ninth.
Kelvin Bywater’s twisty track caught out several experienced riders. Britain’s Robert Whitaker parted company with USA Today at the second element of a double, while Guy Williams retired aboard Golddigger after a crashing through an oxer mid-way through their round.
The Liverpool International Horse Show concludes tonight with the Equestrian.com grand prix, in which 31 riders will battle it out for the €61,800 prize pot.
Piergiorgio Bucci and William Funnell bring forward Casallo Z and Billy Congo respectively, two stallions who have already notched up wins this week.
Local man Peter Charles would love to lift the trophy with the exciting Stapleton Mist, while Billy Twomey has his eyes on the prize with Horse of the Year Show winner Diaghilev for Ireland.
Don’t forget you can watch this evening’s grand prix on our live stream here, with the first rider due in the ring at 8.35pm.
