In spite of competing in a deluge, Cooran’s Billy Raymont and his World Cup mount Caprino won the $2000 first prize in the Alain Henderson Memorial Grand Prix at the recent Sunshine Coast Showjumping and Equestrian Club Autumn Show at Nambour Showgrounds, on 21 April.
Billy followed that up the next week with several wins at the $200,000, five-day Larapinta festival of showjumping. This event was held from the 24-28 April on the south side of Brisbane.
In the final day of the Future Stars four round competition at Larapinta, just as they had won the first and second qualifying round, Billy and Balian D/N Hop Z did it again on Saturday 27 April, with a double clear performance, highlighted by a scintillating second round. They were four seconds clear of the second placed combination, winning the $2,000 first prize.
Owned by Amelia Douglass, who is currently competing in Europe, Bailian is a relatively new ride for Billy, but they are proving an unbeatable combination. This horse tucks his front legs up beautifully, and jumps with great ease.
The best was yet to come. Later in the day Billy and his World Cup Mount Caprino won $6,000 first prize the National Storage World Cup Qualifier round. This was the third World Cup Qualifier for the current season.
The course, designed by Greene Watts, was considered particularly tough. Of the 22 combinations that started in the first round there were four eliminations and four retirements. A retirement occurs when a combination pulls out before completing the course.
Billy and Caprino were the only combination to go clear in the first round. They did a relatively slow 103.84 seconds, just 0.16 seconds inside the time allowed. Any slower and they would have incurred time faults for this round.
The top 10 combinations returned for a second round. Some were carrying 16 faults from the first round, others 8, and only two combinations had 4 faults, behind Billy’s clear round.
When Caprino first started jumping at this level, in his enthusiasm he would often give a mighty pigroot between jumps. In this final he gave a tiny one, but was supremely focused throughout.
As the last combination to jump, and with no other competitors on zero faults, Billy knew that he did not have to go flat out to win if he went clear. Instead of having to scream around this tough course, they did a very calm, precise round to go clear in a time of 78.45 seconds, to take the win.
Billy said afterwards, “I’m super happy with the horse today, we had a little bit of a different idea and ride (for today), and he loved it”.
This final World Cup round can be seen at facebook.com/EquestrianLifeAustralia/videos/1858240754604236
