Robert Smith and Marius Claudius were once again in winning form in France. The duo took the winning honours in the Speed Class on the final day of the show 0.8secs faster than Robert Whitaker. Robert was also placed in the seven year old class riding another talented young stallion, Talan.
Ronaldo, at just nine years of age, competed against more experienced horses and jumped the 1.60m track in style. He was one of only six starters out of 35 to go clear in the first round in which the top 18 qualify to jump in the second round, in reverse order of faults and time. Robert was one of three to jump double clears reaching the jump-off to finish third overall winning over 40,000 euros in this prestigious competition.
Earlier in the week Robert had won the Casino Estoril Prize (1.50m) on Vangelis S and the Vista Algre Prize (1.45m) with his own Ronaldo.
The two times British Open Champion and 2004 Olympic rider says: “We have noticed a difference in our horses’ performance and general condition since we introduced them to a diet of feeds from Falcon Equine earlier this year. We have horses with a variety of different nutritional requirements. The fact the feeds are so well balanced in terms of nutrients makes our feed regime much easier, yet very effective. We no longer need to add lots of different supplements to their rations because they are getting the nourishment from the feeds. The feeds are natural, are of a consistently high quality and delivered fresh too.” www.falconequinefeeds.co.uk for further information.
Released 02.05.06
Despite high hopes for the FEI World Cup Final in Kuala Lumpur, Robert Smith made the decision to withdraw Kalusha after the second leg of the competition due to the horse being off-colour.
After a gruelling twenty three hours of travel, Kalusha, with whom Robert has recently won the British Open on, just wasn’t his normal self. The humidity just did not suit him. Kalusha had a temperature and was given some fluids but didn’t recover in time.
Robert said: “He has worked hard all winter and performed brilliantly. When he had 16 faults in the second leg of the competition, I knew that he wasn’t himself, so I made the difficult decision to withdraw him. He is now back home and having a well-deserved rest for a few weeks.”
The British Open was launched in 2003 at the Sheffield Arena and has quickly established itself as one of the blue chip events on the sporting calendar. It has so far produced three British Champions with Robert Smith twice battling a strong international presence to win back-to-back Championships in 2005 and 2006. In addition to the Championship itself, which will see increased prize money, the 2007 event will once again host the highly acclaimed British Open Indoor Cross Country competition and the High Goal Arena Polo Challenge following their successful debuts at this year’s event.
Mark Wein, Director of Grandstand Group commented, “The infrastructure requirements of the British Open have grown considerably during the past 4 years to the point where we were running out of space. We have therefore taken the decision to move the Show to a larger venue allowing us to expand from using one hall in Sheffield to now using three halls at the NEC. This offers us the opportunity to create a dedicated Tradestand hall to help meet demand as well as the ability to stable the horses in a separate hall in our backstage area. These additional facilities will greatly enhance the Show to the benefit of the visitors, the tradestand holders and the riders.
“Over the past 4 years, the NEC has proved a huge success for our other equine event, the Horse of the Year Show, and such is the versatility of the venue, we will be able to present each Show in a totally unique format. I have no doubt that the British Open will be a resounding success in Birmingham and could lend itself to hosting a World Cup final in the near future.”
Robert Smith will be competing to retain his British Open Champion title at the British Open Show Jumping Championships from 12th – 15th April at the NEC, Birmingham. For tickets and further information visit www.britishopenshowjumping.com. Box Office: 08700 100 216