Listen to our interview with Eric van der Vleuten, winner of Olympia's Rolex FEI World qualifier.
Eric van der Vleuten seized Olympia's Rolex FEI World qualifier, presented by H & M, with an audacious display of speed jumping on VDL Groep Tomboy, a 10-year-old gelding by Emilion, an exciting horse that Eric hopes will put him back into the Dutch team.
Explaining the horse's quirky bucking habit, Eric explained: "He only bucks when I ask him to go very fast - he doesn't do it in a normal round, but he has been feeling very well and fit here all week. I spotted him as a six-year-old, but his owner didn't want to sell and it was only 18 months ago that I finally managed to get hold of him."
The penultimate rider in the 11-rider jump-off, Eric overhauled the seemingly unbeatable target set by Ireland's Cian O'Connor on Rancorrado, eventual second, while last-to-go, France's popular Penelope Leprovost on the nine-year-old grey stallion Mylord Carthago HN, could only manage clear in 35.97 to wind up in third.
"Rancorrado is deceptively fast for a big horse," said Cian. "I now feel that I perhaps wasn't fast enough to the oxer, but if you'd told me this morning I'd have been sitting here in second place, I'd have been pretty pleased!"
Ben Maher, who scored some valuable World Cup points for the final in Geneva in April, was also clear in the nail-biting finale, to finish fourth and best of the British, the next best being Michael Whitaker who was seventh on his Verona winner GIG Amai.
"I was quite quick over the first three fences in the jump-off, but perhaps a bit slow on my turn to the oxer. It would have been nice to have a win on home ground, but Robin Hood is not a quick jumper and I struggle in jump-offs. If I'm lucky enough to get to the final, I'll take Wonderboy and save Robin Hood for the World Equestrian Games."
German course-designer Frank Rothenberger appeared to have set an appropriately tough test but after three Scandinavians (Geir Gulliksen, Svante Johansson and H & M's own rider Malin Baryard-Johnsson) set the ball rolling there followed a sudden glut of clears, with six in a row.
Frank admitted he only anticipated eight clears, but said that perhaps Olympia's perfect footing, provided by Martin Collins, was a contributory factor to horses jumping so well. "It all started off well and quietly with a few four-fault rounds and then suddenly it got away from me!" he said. "But it was great to see horses jumping so well and it turned into a terrific competition."
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