Local equestrians, Billy Raymont and his wife Tess, have been enjoying a lot of success this year, most recently in the Phillip Island Grand Prix, and the Shepparton World Cup Show.
Billy was out of action recently, having suffered two cracked ribs in late February, so Tess took over his two top horses, Anton and Black Jack IXE, as well as competing her own horse, Alwynds Valero in the Philip Island Grand Prix. Against an elite field she brought all of these horses home for a place, winning the event on Anton, placing second on Black Jack, and coming fifth on Alwynds.
Although not fully recovered, Billy entered Anton and Black Jack IXE in the Shepparton World Cup Qualifier, the first of the 10 World Cup events that will be held this year. The first WC event was held at the grounds of the Northern Victorian Show Jumping Club (NVSJC). Having not held a World Cup competition there for a number of years, there was much excitement about being back at these wonderful grounds for such an important event.
A total of 24 combinations, lined up to tackle the David Sheppard-designed course and of these, five were able to record a clear first round, the fastest of which was by Billy Raymont and the majestic looking stallion Black Jack IXE. His other entry, Anton, had the second fastest clear round.
In the second round jump-off, the second last combination out, Billy Raymont and Anton went double clear, and with a scorching time of 54.61 seconds, got to to the top of the leaderboard. There was only one rider left to come who could take the win from Raymont and that was Billy himself.
After a short break to let them warm up, Billy Raymont and Black Jack IXE entered the arena in front of a crowd silent with anticipation, however, for this combination, it was not to be. A rail down saw them end up on a total of four and with a time of 61.08 seconds, so they had to settle for sixth.
This made Anton the overall winner of this event.
The bay, nearly 19-yr-old, warmblood Anton, owned by Michelle Clarke of South Australia, is still in peak form. Billy describes Anton as a freak, because of his incredible speed and accuracy over the biggest of jumps.
When he first came to Billy nine years ago, Anton was a very easily spooked horse that hated jumping over water, and would stop before jumps at the slightest distraction.
After a year of building his confidence, in 2014, Anton moved up to sixth place in the Golden Grand, a scale of the best show jumping horses in the nation. By 2016 he was in second position, and by 2017 he had reached number one, winning the three first World Cup Qualifiers in a row, in a spectacular year of jumping.
This qualified Billy to compete overseas in the World Cup finals in Paris where, against the best in the world, he came ninth in the Grand Prix there on Oaks Redwood, his other 2017 World Cup entry.
Billy and Tess are currently planning another European venture. On the Pacific League 2022 World Cup leaderboard Billy Raymont sits at number one, and Tess Raymont is at number 10.
