British showjumper Guy Williams had a double of wins on Friday at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) – and he narrowly missed out on a third win.
The renowned speed merchant had his first victory of the day in the JMA Agricultural Parts Trophy, riding the reliably quick 14-year-old chestnut gelding Casper de Muze.
Despite being drawn early in the speed class, Guy set an incredible time of 56.46sec – which ended up being almost six second faster than anyone else.
“I was early to go, and I didn’t take any chances, but some classes can go your way like that,” said Guy, who is now based in France. “Casper is a proper winner. Today we had the handbrake on a bit with him doing the accumulator class on Saturday; I wanted to keep a bit in reserve. He did that at canter today, but when I let him off, he’s pretty unbeatable.”
Belgium’s Jos Verlooy was second on Balloon, with Phillip Miller third onDa Vinci.
A few hours after winning the speed class, Guy turned his hand to a different sort of competition with the Grandstand Media Five Fence Challenge.
The class features a course of five fences that increase in height after each round, with Guy jumping four successive clear rounds to beat runner-up Denis Lynch.
This time it was Depardieu Van’t Kiezelhof who gave Guy his second win of the day.
“He is a really big jumper,” said Guy about the 13-year-old gelding. “He was a little bit lucky in the third round at the last fence, but we all need a bit of luck, and we got away with it. He wasn’t going to hit it in the fourth round, that’s for sure.”
Guy plans to jump Casper De Muze in the Speed Horse of the Year competition as well as Saturday’s accumulator, with Depardieu aiming for the Puissance and Titus the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Williams came very close to a third win in the feature class of the night, the NAEC Stoneleigh Stakes – but in the end he had to settle for second place behind France’s Julien Epaillard.
Guy and Titus had clocked a jump-off time of 26.80sec, putting the pressure on his rivals, but Julien steered Cristallo A home in 24.89sec to take the £7,300 top prize.
It was a jump-off with a twist though as riders could plot their own route, provided they jumped all six fences.
Image credit ES Photography
Horse & Country’s coverage of HOYS is brought to you in association with TopSpec. Watch the daily highlights show on H&C TV each night at 7.30pm from Thursday to Monday. Watch on Sky 253 or sign up to H&C Play to watch on your computer, smart phone or tablet.