ph. Stefano Grasso/LGCT
World No1 and 2013 Longines Global Champions Tour Champion Britain’s Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos have become the first horse and rider combination in the history of the Tour ever to win three Grand Prix in the same season. Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos have won the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Cannes (FRA), the Grand Prix of Estoril (POR) and now the Grand Prix of London (GBR). It seems that the 2013 Champion has maintained his incredible momentum of 2013 through to this season, with no signs of letting up.
The only other rider to win three legs in one year was Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum in 2008 – Meredith won two with her legendary Shutterfly and one with Checkmate.
Scott paid tribute to his incredible horse, owned by Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham: ”I’m a very lucky person at the minute, that sort of horse doesn’t come around too often. I think you get one in your lifetime, really, if you’re lucky you get another one, but I mean for everything he’s achieved, for all his clear rounds he’s jumped and the joy that he’s brought so many people – my owners, my staff, everyone, the nation – and myself… Yeah, he’s brought me a lot of joy as well, he just really is an incredible horse, yeah I am just so, so happy to be riding him.”
“I think before Cascais, Estoril I said to a couple of people that he just felt really fit – I probably got him the most fit of the whole year. You can’t have them completely top fit all year round, and obviously with the World Equestrian Games in our sights, we’re trying to peak for then and he’s already peaking. He feels fantastic, he really does. But really it is fantastic to win in front of your home crowd. I mean it makes a big difference and it spurs you on more. You really want to win, you want to give them something to shout about, so I’m really happy that we’ve done it today.”
Brash currently sits comfortably in 6th place on the Championship leaderboard 36 points behind leader Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (SWE). However the Scotsman only has five Grand Prix results counting this season and each rider can have a maximum of seven, this means that with two more good results from any of the next three rounds will rocket Brash up the ranking. The next spot of the Tour is Lausanne from the 12-14 September where all eyes will be on the LGCT Top Ten to see if anyone can keep up with the World No1’s sparkling, unbeatable form.
Source: LGCT