Kit Houghton/FEI

World number 7, Kevin Staut, won the eleventh qualifying round of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping 2011/2012 series on his home turf at Bordeaux last night.  Riding the 13 year old grey mare, Silvana HDC(Corland x Widor), he was the best of a 10 horse jump-off and Australia's Edwina Top-Alexander and Cevo Itot du Chateau had to settle for second place.  Belgium’s Rik Hemeryck were third with Quarco de Kerambars, while Ireland’s Denis Lynch finished fourth with his exciting new stallion, Contifex.

But last night's competition was mainly about accumulating valuable point for the World Cup final in April.  Following the next, and last, qualifying leg at Gothenburg, Sweden, is in two weeks and since its the last qualifier, it will decide what top-18 riders will make the cut for the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping final which will take place in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands at the end of April.  So the placings all the way down the line are critical at this stage, and the pressure is on.

With three of the first seven riders clear over Uliano Vezzani’s first-round track, it seemed another big start-list was in prospect for the jump-off.  But, surprisingly, many of the highest-ranked riders running later in the class failed to keep a clean sheet as the triple combination at fence five, the double at fence eight and the last line that included a vertical with water-tray followed by a big oxer and the final vertical took a heavy toll.

The were 11 competitors from France, but only two managed to keep a clean sheet and make it into the deciding round.  Staut would ensure that the glory remained at home however.

Result:

1, Silvana HDC (Kevin Staut) FRA 0/0 34.16;
2, Cevo Itot du Chateau (Edwina Tops-Alexander) AUS 0/0 34.59;
3, Quarco de Kerambars (Rik Hemeryck) BEL 0/0 35.54;
4, Contifex (Denis Lynch) IRL 0/0 36.53;
5, H&M Reveuer de Hurtebise (Malin Baryard-Johnsson) SWE 0/0 37.78;
6, Plot Blue (Marcus Ehning) GER 0/4 35.35;
7, Monte Bellini (Philipp Weishaupt) GER 0/4 36.60;
8, Lennox (Luciana Diniz) POR 0/4 37.44;
9, Talent (Nina Fagerstrom) FIN 0/4 37.48;
10, Mister Davier (Julien Epaillard) FRA 0/8 35.63.

Full results here