Release date: 13/08/2010 |    

Britain's Ben Maher flew to Valkenswaard from a short holiday break and showed he had made the best of the rest when he snatched victory in the main class this afternoon in Valkenswaard by only three tenths of a second. Riding Oscar who belongs to Ben's holiday hosts, Mr and Mrs Cook, he rode a superlative jump off despite losing a stirrup over the second last fence. The win was all the more outstanding because Ben has only been jumping the horse competitively for a few weeks, GCT Chantilly was one of their first international outings together. “He just gets better and better” said a smiling rider afterwards. Fourteen horses had been presented for the jump off over Uliano Vezzani's course so the winner was bound to be the one who was the bravest, particularly as there was a long gallop to the last. Bernardo Alves, who was the first one to really attack the jump off course on his Monaco winner Bridgit and his time of 43.67 took nearly three seconds off the previous leaders, Gerco Schroder and Eurocommerce Pennsylvania, who ended up fifth. Emilio Bicocci and Olea brought the crowd to their feet but they could only managed 41.15. Michel Robert tried the same audacious gallop to the last that had worked so well in Chantilly with Kellemoi de Pepita but failed by over a second although 45.62 did earn him 1600 Euro for fourth spot.