Britain’s Richard Davison, Hiscox Artemis Set New Personal Best Scores in Grand Prix & Special at Munich CDI5*
13 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Britain’s Richard Davison, Hiscox Artemis Set New Personal Best Scores in Grand Prix & Special at Munich CDI5*
MUNICH, Germany, May 19–Richard Davison rode Hiscox Artemis to victory in the Grand Prix Special with a personal best score Saturday after posting a personal high in the Grand Prix at the World Dressage Masters to stake his claim to the likely sole place remaining on Great Britain’s team at the Olympic Games in London.
Richard, who rode for Britain at three consecutive Olympics–Atlanta in 1996, Sydney 2000 amd Athens 2004–received a score on Artemis of 73.467 per cent in the pair’s first performance of the Olympic Grand Prix Special, surpassing their previous high in a Special of 70.646 per cent. Their score of 74.404 per cent for fourth place in the Grand Prix also eclipsed the previous high of 73.374 per cent the pair attained just a month ago at the World Cup Final in The Netherlands.
Sweden’s Minne Telde and Santana placed second in the Special with 72.911 per cent while Denmark’s Lone Jörgensen and FBW De Vito were third on 71.622 per cent.
Hiscox Artemis (Florestan x Delphine x Delphi), a 13-year-old Westfalen gelding, has been competed by Richard at Grand Prix since the end of 2008 but the pair have not made a British championship team and are seeking one of the four places–three team and one individual–that the host nation has qualified for and are favorites for team gold.
Richard and Artemis were the sole British combination at the Munich CDI5* after Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, who set a new world record score at Grand Prix Special at Hagen, Germany, three weeks ago, pulled out of the event.
He said that since last December’s World Cup qualifier at London’s Olympia, Artemis has competed in only big events with lots of atmosphere and has become consistent and reliable producing personal best results at successive shows.
He chose the Special over the Freestyle because British Olympic selection criteria requires a score at the Special. Their next competition is scheduled for the Nations Cup at Rotterdam the end of next month.
The Briish Olympic squad will be announced seven weeks from now.
Barring any unforeseen developments, the top three will be Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris, Carl Hester and Uthopia and Charlotte and Valegro, ranked Nos. 3, 4 and 5 in the world, respectively.
Richard, aged 56 and the father of two sons who are successful young British show jumper riders, and Artemis are the next British pair in the rankings at No. 23. Emile Faurie and Elmegardens Marquis, who was the fourth pair with Britain’s brilliant band of three that won an historic team gold at the 2011 European Championships, are ranked No. 53.
The pair finished fifth in both the Grand Prix and the Freestyle in last month’s World Cup Final, the only annual global championships and that was won by world No. 1 Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival for the second year in a row.
Grand Prix Special results: WDM Grand Prix Special
