Adrian Speight and 17-year-old veteran Millfield Baloney proved they were still at the top of their game when they claimed the British Showjumping Business Partnership international stairway final, and with it the British Showjumping national title, for the second time in three years.
The combination have had a phenomenal track record over the past few seasons, although Judith Witham’s gelding has had a slightly quieter run this year — albeit still banking more than £60,000 in winnings.
“We tried to do a bit less with him, taking his age into account, but the problem we have is that he’s better the more he does!” Adrian said.
“He is a freak of nature, he keeps coming out and doing it. He’s sound and he’s more of a pain when he’s not doing as much. You don’t have to patch him up after he jumps, he’ll go out in the field tomorrow and carry on with his normal routine. He just loves his job.”
Jason Abbs, Ben Townley and Peter Allens’ track for the 1.50m international stairway final jumped a little softer than the first day’s exacting 1.40m, letting through 10 clears from 41 starters, with most of the remainder lowering just the one or two poles.
“It was clever course building with wide oxers and tall verticals and some options on distances and to save time,” Adrian said. “The fences that were falling were here, there and everywhere.
“In the first round you had to set off in a rhythm and stay in it. Both rounds started with a triple bar to get you in the right frame of mind and keep you moving forward.”
All bar one of the first five jump off contenders produced a second faultless round, making it apparent that this final would be a dogfight against the clock.
Star combination headed for hat-trick
Mark Edwards, who was sixth to jump, was the runaway favourite to take the title. He appeared set to sweep the board after claiming the first two legs of the national championship show league with his phenomenal little 15.3hh homebred Flying Tinker II.
This partnership was cresting a wave of form, having already more than guaranteed a Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) wild card by heading both the gold and international stairway leagues.
The 12-year-old gelding’s prowess against the clock had been made obvious in the previous day’s national speed horse final, where he had romped to victory by an unequivocal 4.42sec.
Coming into the ring, Mark had Karl Robin’s target with Camille HBF to topple, and he was well up on the clock as he turned from the double to jump the final right-handed line home.
But the son of Mark’s former grand prix ride Tinker’s Tale just rolled the pole behind on the penultimate vertical, beating Karl’s time by exactly 2sec but ending all hopes of a hat-trick.
The door was left swinging open for Adrian and “Louie”, who were jumping third from last.
Light-footed, blood and effortless off the floor, the Balou Du Rouet gelding is capable against the clock, and Mark had already shown there was ample leeway for Karl’s time to be overthrown.
Adrian set out to attack, just taking a slight pull before the penultimate vertical, and then opened up to dare the final oxer. He came home 0.30sec ahead of Karl to snatch the win.
‘I don’t know if I could have gone quicker’
“I was a little bit cautious about [the penultimate] fence, I wanted to give him time to jump it in front as I knew he’d be quick away from it,” Adrian said.
“I don’t know whether we could have gone quicker than Mark if he’d left the fence up. Maybe we could have caught him but you’d have to have taken some risk. He’s unbelievable and that horse is a machine.”
Adrian and “Louie” came to the British Showjumping national championships on the back of their 5* debut at the Royal International, where they finished in 12th place in the King George V Cup.
While known for his unusual personality traits, including his narcolepsy and ability to jump fences, even as they blow down in front of him, the horse has continued to shine in what would normally be the twilight of his career.
“Right here right now, there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t be fit and sound for next year,” Adrian said. “We don’t have him entered for anything else after this but we’d like to find him some more good shows.”
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