Two years ago, Ben Maher and the great Explosion W beat Martin Fuchs to Royal Windsor’s CSI5* Rolex grand prix. But this year, the Swiss rider turned the tables to steal a stunning 0.4sec victory with Conner Jei.
The combination made the most of a late draw to beat eight jump off contenders to the €125,000 (£110,000) first prize.
Ireland’s Bertram Allen had opened proceedings with a quick clear on Pacino Amiro, who finished third in the Rolex grand prix in Florida on his previous outing.
But despite being at only their second show for nine months, Ben and Explosion made good on their midfield threat, taking a stride out to the last fence to edge o.28sec ahead.
“I knew who I had to watch from the startlist — Bertram and Ben. Bertram had a hard draw, it’s never easy to go first but he did everything very well. Then I saw where Ben left out the strides in the turns compared to Bertram and I just tried to do same round but be a bit quicker,” said Martin, who toppled the lead as he took fliers to both the last fence and preceding vertical.
“I knew I would want to do seven strides through the turn [to the penultimate vertical], the same as Ben. I didn’t turn as tight as him but I had to push hard for the seven and that’s what made it quicker.”
The result was a turn in fortunes for Conner from his previous three-star outing to Gorla Minore, where he had finished 32nd in the grand prix.
“He was fantastic today — he came back from quite a long break after Geneva because he did a lot of shows last year, so I gave him the indoor season off,” said Martin, who was taking his second victory of the week.
“The build up to coming to Royal Windsor wasn’t so easy, as at our last three-star show I struggled a bit in the grand prix and didn’t have much control. He didn’t have the scope he can do and I was struggling a lot to think of what I could do differently to help the horse be at his best again.
“I called my uncle Markus [Fuchs] to help me with him and he has been riding him three times a week for the past three weeks. When I was at a show last week, my uncle was at home working Conner. I am very lucky to have his help.”
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