Emanuele Gaudiano posted a second spectacular win on the opening day of Jumping Verona 2024 to set a new record as the most successful Italian rider in the history of the prestigious Italian fixture.
His opening-class victory brought his tally of successes at the event to a total of seven earlier in the afternoon. But, once again setting a target that no other rider could reach, he moved that total on to eight when taking pole position in the Banca Passadore Speed just a few hours later.
That puts him top of the Leading Italian Rider leaderboard, overtaking Juan Carlos Garcia who previously held the record with seven wins at CSI* W – Verona during his sparking career.
Set the pace
This time riding the 11-year-old Belgian-bred stallion Nikolaj de Music, Gaudiano set the pace with a blistering round in 59.95 when fifteenth in the ring for the Speed class. And his closest challenger proved to be the third partnership to take on Uliano Vezzani’s 13-fence track, Switzerland’s Barbara Schnieper and the 14-year-old mare Judy KM who raced home in 61.57 seconds while Belgium’s Jerome Guery and Great Britain V lined up next in 62.22 seconds.
Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Caillan) finished fourth ahead of Swedish compatriot Petronella Andersson (Olympke van’t Merelsnet) in fifth while Simon Delestre (Olga van de Kruishoeve) finished in sixth place.
Fastest
Fastest man of the day was Delestre’s fellow-countryman, Julien Anquetin who looked set to overtake Gaudiano with a sensational round with the nine-year-old mare Flamby des Forets until hitting the second-last. The pair raced on through the timers in 58.75 seconds, but had to settle for 18th place in the final analysis.
Nikolaj has been in excellent form of late, with a double of wins at the CSI4*-W shows in Tetouan (MAR) in September and El Jadida (MAR) in October. “Normally he is my Grand Prix horse but today I wanted to ride him a bit quick and he was great!”, Gaudiano said before climbing aboard his new ride, Chalou’s Love, for the final class of the opening day.
«I don’t know this horse very well, I’ve only been riding him for two months – I will choose after today which is going to jump the Grand Prix», he pointed out.
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Ph. JV/SGrasso
