FRANCE (by Adriana van Tilburg) The ambiance of Jumping Château de Versailles was something special. In the middle of Versailles, the jumping took place between the walls of ‘Écurie du Roi’, the Royal stables of Versailles. There were also some rather interesting horses that had not previously been on my radar, so it was very interesting to research some different bloodlines.
Jumping Château de Versailles was certainly a showcase for stallions, including a new talent in international sport called Urano de Cartigny (Diamant de Semilly - Esperance d’Elle x Double Espoir), bred by Bertrand Pignolet. This Selle Français bred and approved stallion competed at his first five-star event under the saddle of Pénéope Leprevost. Fam- ily Pignolet are the owners of Haras d’Elle. Urano de Cartigny’s dam, Esperance d’Elle, is a full sister to Flipper d’Elle who competed at 1m60 with Laurent Goffinet (FRA). Urano de Cartigny acquitted himself very well, placing fifth in the 1m50 class on Friday against a field of very good horses. The class was won by the BWP-bred Eros (Querlybet Hero - Quincy x Forever), bred by Andre Van Duyse and ridden by Olivier Robert (FRA). It was also the first five-star show for this quite new partnership.
Bred by Bert Van den Branden, the BWP bred stallion Emerald van’t Ruytershof (Diamant de Semilly - Carthina Z x Carthago Z) had a good show with Harrie Smolders, finishing second in Saturday’s 1m55 class. Coincidentally, Lorenzo de Luca (ITA) rode a daughter of Emerald van’t Ruytershof – Jeunesse van ‘t Paradijs (Emerald van ’t Ruytershof - Elegance van ’t Paradijs x Heartbreaker) in a 1m50 class. Bred by Johan Rooms van den Branden, she was the youngest horse of this five-star show, at the age of eight, and jumped extremely well...
