Rodrigo Pessoa, the brilliant Brazilian who finished on top of the world in Rome two years ago, made the best possible start to his bid for a fourth consecutive World Cup victory when prevailing in the opening leg at the finals in Gothenburg, Sweden, last night.
Pessoa was drawn three-quarters of the way through the 45-strong field, but his first night nerves did not seem to have entirely settled with the wait. The stallion Balbouet du Rouet was truly on song, however, and after surviving a seriously tense moment when he smacked down on the back rail of the oxer four from home, the powerful chestnut flashed through the finish clear to annihilate the opposition.
Pessoa, like so many other riders, had suffered an interrupted build-up to the show, due to the foot-and-mouth crisis. His entire schedule had been put on hold and Baloubet's last competitive outing had been in Milan during the last week of February.
But Pessoa believes the 12year-old stallion is ready to provide the horsepower for his fourth World Cup crown. "I've had a great start," he said last night, "and it's a little bit early to say, but I feel good and the horse is very fresh, so now we'll just have to wait and see."
The Brazilian's time of 70.13 was not the fastest in the class, as American Ray Texel had already clocked 67.8. But the Californian had to soak up a four-second penalty when the former Michael Whitaker ride, Fleur, lowered the second element of the double to leave him runner-up to Pessoa and just two adrift in the points table.
Although Michael Whitaker has had to do without the services of the talented Fleur since her sale last year, he got a good enough tune out of Handel yesterday to slot into a handy third place, well in touch with the leaders for tonight's second leg.
Jessica Kurten missed her goal for the opening round by just one. "I would have liked to finish in the top 16," she said after clinching the first clear of the class with Paavo N to nail 17th. "But I'm very happy with the way he jumped. I didn't push him because I want something left for the rest of the week." Kurten now goes through to tonight's two-rounder 17 points adrift of the leader, but will be hoping to claw back some of that with another good performance from the 15-year-old Rheinlander gelding, who blossoms over the bigger fences.
At one stage it had looked as though Ireland would have two riders at the finals. But Peter Charles, whose horses were stranded in Holland for over a fortnight, pulled out 10 days ago as they had missed too much work.
FEI WORLD CUP (placings after first leg) - 1, Brazil's Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa); 2, America's Fleur Z (Ray Texel); 3, Britain's Handel II (Michael Whitaker); 4, Germany's Loro Piana Esprit FRH (Lars Nieberg); 5, Switzerland's Calvaro V (Willi Melliger); 6, Switzerland's Tinka's Boy (Markus Fuchs); . . . 17, Ireland's Paavo N (Jessica Kurten).
TWO-PHASE - 1, Germany's Paramo K (Franke Sloothaak); 2, America's Sampson (Kate Levy); 3, Britain's Virtual Village Two Step (Michael Whitaker); 4, America's Job (Peter Wylde); 5, America's Hidden Creek's Alvaretto (Margie Goldstein-Engle); 6, Belgium's Quebec (Ludo Philippaerts); . . . 13, Ireland's Calistro 5 (Jessica Kurten).
