Scott Brash has revealed his top horse Hello Sanctos will not available for selection for next month’s European Championships (11-23 August).
The 13-year-old gelding, owned by Lord and Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham, has been a lynchpin of Britain’s championship teams for the past few years — being part of the gold medal-winning quartet at both London 2012 and at the 2013 Europeans.
However, Scott told H&H it has been decided it is “not in the horse’s interest” to put him forward for selection.
“Hello Sanctos has now competed in three championships and, unfortunately for everyone, is not getting any younger,” he said.
The decision, he added, was to give the horse the “best chance of being able to compete at a second Olympics, if the opportunity arose”.
“It is felt that the amount of jumping required over a short period of time in a championship would not be in the best interest of the horse this year,” he said.
Instead, Scott and Sanctos will head to Calgary to the final leg of the Rolex Grand Slam at Spruce Meadows (9-13 September).
Having won two of the three legs already this year (Geneva and Aachen) Scott merely has to show up to collect the €500,000 (£360,000) prize. Should he win he’ll pick up the €1million (£720,000) bonus.
Scott hasn’t been ruled out of the Europeans though, as he’s been putting in strong performances with nine-year-old mare Hello M’Lady. He also has Hello Forever, also nine, in the running.
For full reaction from Di Lampard, Scott and H&H columnist William Funnell don’t miss this week’s issue of H&H, out today (Thursday 9 July).
