This year’s Horse of the Year Show has turned out to be Scott Brash’s event. The Scottish rider took the Horse & Hound Foxhunter title with Sauron ML the day after winning the seven-year-old final with Beaujolais.
“He’s so fast a loves jumping against the clock,” said Scott, who claimed the class after a 16-horse jump-off.
Ireland’s Billy Twomey gave Scott a run for his money, however, finishing just 0.17sec behind with Carron Nicola’s Blue Thunder.
Earlier in the day, Billy had recorded his own win, this time in the international classes, with another of Carron Nicol’s horses, Fantasia.
“I think he’s the best rider in Britain,” said Carron.
Eleven riders made the jump-off of the Sylvia Barnes memorial cup and Billy produced one of just two double clears in the class to take the top prize ahead of Britain’s Andrew Davies and Sir Graditz.
Sweden’s Linda Head claimed the evening’s speed class after pulling off an unbelievably tight approach to the third fence with the Swedish warmblood Touch.
“Touch came to me a year ago to be trained up, but he’s quickly becoming my first horse,” said Linda, who is visiting the Horse of the Year Show for the first time.
Guy Williams scored a win from the home side in the Thomas Bates and Son classic with Torinto Van Der Middelstede. The class was run as a two-phase and Guy beat Tim Stockdale (Lou Lou) by 0.44sec.
Stay in touch with all the news from HOYS on Horseandhound.co.uk throughout the show, and don’t miss next week’s H&H for a special in-depth report on all the action
