Harrie Smolders and Mennell Watson, joint winners of the HOYS Accumulator. ph: 1st Class Images
In the £22,300 Accumulator Class at the Horse Of The Year Show CSI3* in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Harrie Smolders of The Netherlands and Great Britain’s Mennell Waston tied for a joint, 1st place victory.
On Saturday, October 7, 2017, 31 horse and rider combinations took to the 1.60m course, competing for the lump sum of the winner’s purse and valuable points towards the Longines Ranking. In the one round competition against the clock, riders collected points for each fence jumped, with a maximum score of 65. Any combinations to finish on that figure were then separated by their time produced.
Both Smolders and Waston piloted their respective mounts, the ten-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Cas 2 (Indoctro x Number Uno) and the nine year old AES stallion Whisper In The Wind (Cobretti x Mr. Majestic), to a time of 49.12s. They each collected £5,900 for their efforts.
Smolders, the World No. 6 ranked rider, is fresh off his team victory with The Netherlands at last weekend’s Longines FEI Nations Cup final in Barcelona.
“It’s always good to be here at Horse of the Year Show,” said Harrie. “It’s a great atmosphere, a great show and we love coming here. With the crowd here, you always want to be competitive, and I wanted to see how fast my horse could go. I am pleased with the win. This is a real show, which is why I like coming here. We cannot simulate this at home. Last weekend was fantastic, with the Nations Cup final – one of the highlights of our sport. I have had an amazing year, with the Nations Cup and also winning the Global Champions Tour series.”
For 3rd place, Great Britain’s Louise Saywell and Feigtling finished on 65 points in 49.50s. Fellow countryman Phillip Miller and Sussex Caretino finished 4th with a time of 50.54s.
The full results can be viewed here.