© PSV.J.Morel
Grand Prix 2* Defender - Marie Pellegrin keeps on winning!
The French national anthem rang out in honour of Marie Pellegrin and her amazing Fini l'Amour after the Grand Prix 2* Defender event on Saturday afternoon. France was in the limelight, since Tony Hanquiquant and Mélanie Cloarec were second and third on the podium.
The Grand Prix 2* Defender with 1.45 obstacles promised to be a thriller, given the 50 riders and horses in the starting line-up. A total of 14 couples, including 13 French representatives, managed to get through to the second round on the course designed by Grégory Bodo, which meant a great battle was in store for the jump-off against the clock.
Indeed, one after the other, the rider-and-horse couples produced a series of clear rounds in ever-faster times. Camille Condé Ferreira, riding Egérie du Val du Geer (36"80), was the first rider to go under the 37-second barrier, finishing just off the podium. Then, Tony Hanquinquant and his 8-year-old Lacomonique crossed the finish line in 36"46, taking provisional pole position. Mélanie Cloarec from Brittany was not far off the mark with her spirited Fais Toi Belle du Seigneur Pléville, but her time of 36''66 could only put her in third place. Then, the penultimate rider out, Marie Pellegrin, who lives twenty kilometres from Lyon, gave it everything with her exceptional Fini l'Amour. With cat-like agility, the brown bay stallion overcame the difficulties to give Marie Pellegrin another victory, some 11 years after she first won here with Admirable, her favourite horse.
The result was a source of great satisfaction for the French rider after the recent sale of her top horse Deuxcatsix d'Eglefin.
Marie Pellegrin's reaction: "Obviously, I wanted to do everything I could to win this Grand Prix. But when it comes to a jump-off, there is no plan (laughs). My coach Pascal Levy had to leave to catch a plane before the jump-off. When he found out I had qualified for the jump-off, he sent me countless text messages saying "Don't get carried away" (laughs). He knows what I'm like and he knows that with Fini, who handles like a pony, I can act like a Junior and go flat out. I can sometimes push it too much and go a bit too fast (laughs).
It means a lot to win here. It's our last competition of the year, and the sale of Deuxcatsix, even though she is now with a professional rider, still affects me, so I really wanted to win at home. I'm very attached to this black horse that I really adore. He's magnificent and he knows it: the bigger the crowd watching and the more noise they make, the better he jumps. He loves to be told he's beautiful and people are watching him.
I bought Fini while I was recovering from an adductor injury. I was walking around in Villers-Vicomte. I was in the paddock watching my horse jump when I came across this little black horse and a rider I didn't know. And it was love at first sight. I watched him on the course, he galloped and jumped the first hurdle and I said to myself "I want him". It was a real whim (laughs). I looked around to see who was watching him and spotted Nicolas Paillot, who I know very well, and it was his horse. We talked a bit and then shook hands. That was two years ago, Fini was just seven years old."