Great Britain is proclaimed the winner of the Nations Cup. The event was sponsored by Victoria beer.

The event was sponsored by Victoria beer. From 20 teams, Brazil were second and Switzerland and Sweden tied for third place .

The British Nations Cup team consisted of  Joseph Clayton riding Gentleman VH Veldhof;  Alex Thompson riding  Cathalina S;  Karl Robins riding Equine America G Camille HBF and  Matthew Sampson riding Geneve R.  This was the winning team in today’s Nations Cup, finishing on a final score of just 2 faults, held here at Dehesa Montenmedio showground.  Eight teams moved on to the second round from the 20 that started.  The British team went through to the second round on a team score of zero, with Joe Clayton having the difficult task of jumping first for his team in the first round,  and just touching two poles, ending up with the discard score.

In the second round the team continued to impress but with three riders having jumped, they were sitting on an overall  score of 10 points and needed to discard Joe Clayton’s unlucky second round score of 9 faults. This meant the last rider Matt Sampson went into the arena, knowing he needed either a clear, or minimal time points for the team to take the top of the podium.  This he did with a fabulous round and riding with a very clear head under great pressure.  In the end he clocked up just one time fault.  With three team members jumping three rounds in each leg of the event, where not a pole was touched, they were the much deserved winners of today’s Nations Cup which was sponsored by Victoria beer.  The chef d’equipe for the British team is Mrs Di Lampard, was here directing the team and we would like to congratulation them all on a very well deserved win in a hotly contested event.  This is a great result for the British and comes just after their win in the Nations Challenge Cup in the Finals that were also held here in Spain at the beginning of this month in Barcelona. 

Brazil took second place ending up with a overall score of 4 points, 2 from each round.  The Brazilian chef d’equipe is Pedro Paulo Lacerda and he did a great job today along with his team made up of;  Felipe Amaral riding Androide 3K who had two immaculate clears;  Karina Johannpeter riding Escape-Adventure with just 2 time faults, one in each round and Matheus Correa with Zeusz who also had 2 time faults, one in each round.  This was a great achievement again with not one pole touched between them,  and they well deserved second place today. 

There was a tie for third place between Switzerland and Sweden with both countries ending up on an overall score of 9 points. At the beginning of the second round both these two teams and Ireland and Italy were neck and neck on 9 points.  So it was all to play for and very clear that any faults accumulated in this second round were going to be decisive.  After some exciting rounds it was clear that the Switzerland and Sweden were moving up the leaderboard as other teams clocked up faults.

In this second round the first three riders from the Swiss team went clear in the time  Barbara Schnieper with Quick Fire; Edouard Schmitz with Quno and Alain Jufer with  Dante MM, meaning  Niklaus Schurtenberger with Lireu did not need to jump again. The Swiss chef d’equipe was Mr Andy Kistler.  

The Swedish rider Linda Heed with Laurien van Orshof went clear,  but Alexander Zetterman and “Triton Hastak” had a few fences and it was left to the remaining two riders to go clear in order to stay in equal third place.  Stepping up to the challenge was  Antonia Pettersson riding  Chaccatara with a clear in the time, followed by Wilma Hellström and Cicci BJN who also finished on zero.  Their chef d’equipe is Mr Henrik Ankarcrona.  These teams received their trophies from Sergio Ragel, who is the external relations manager of Victoria beers and from José Villalobos, who is their marketing manager.

Spain, who went in to the second round on a zero as one of the favourites to win,  ended up in fifth place on a total of 13 faults.  Their chef d’equipe was Carolo López Quesada and the team members were  Manuel Fernández Saro with Jarlin de Torres; Santiago Núñez Riva with Valentino de Hus Z; Ismael García Roque with La Costa and  Sergio Álvarez Moya with Malibu de Muze.

As well as all the excitement in the Nations Cup the show ground here was very busy in the other arenas.  The CSIO3* Longines Rankings class was just one of another ten other classes today. 

The 1.45m CSI2* Victoria Trophy Longines Ranking class was won by the very fast rider from Turkey,  Derin Demirsoy, who is having a  great October Tour here with us.  He won this class in a mere 61.83s with the stallion Caprice D’Elle with almost a second in hand over another very fast pair,  the British rider Jackson Reed Stephenson with Muna VD Bisschop.  In third was the Danish rider  Zascha Nygaard Andreasen with the mare Glosokka.

The 1.40m two phase, CSI2* Hipotels Trophy class had a Spanish winner,  Patricio Valdenebro del Rey who was riding  Klimax van Het Lindehof and who finished in a very fast time.  This pair beat off a total of 71 other competitors and took the win from another frequent podium pair, Regis Villain with Grey du Houssoit.  In third was the Portuguese rider Antonio Matos Almeida riding Canada Z.

The CSIO3* was set at 1.45m today and the winner was the amazing Olympic rider from the USA, Laura Kraut who was riding Hera FBH.  This mare is 9yrs old and by Comme Il Faut 5, dam sire Heartbreaker.  In second place was the Italian rider Filippo Lupis with Dollar Boy O and in third was  Kim Emmen with Ikannan V G.

The 1.40m CSIO3*was won by Swiss rider Barbara Schnieper with Inook,  Sergio Álvarez Moya (ESP) and Halifax W were second and in third was Duarte Seabra (POR) with Moulin Rouge van Paemel.

The Young Horse classes were also running today and the Polish rider Malgorzata Ciszek-Lewicka was the winner of the 7yr old class on the lovely Daisy who is by Glasgow-W van het Merelsnest  In second place was Lady Angeles who is ridden by Kim Emmen.

Winners of the 5 and 6yr old clases were, respectively,  Duearte Seabra with L-Piccola and Carlos Bosch with Jolie van der Berghoeve.

The Nations Cup sponsored by Victoria beers will be shown on the Spanish channel Teledeporte on the 4th of Nov at 12:00 and on the 19th Nov at 21.00h on Horse TV, channel 86 on Movistar +.