Catch the Swedes if you can!

A week after claiming two Olympic medals in Tokyo, Sweden’s Peder Fredricson lands the show’s feature class in a thrilling tussle with John Whitaker

- SARAH RADFORD and JENNIFER DONALD

LONGINES LGCT GRAND

PRIX 1 – PEDER FREDRICSON & Catch Me Not S (SWE)

2 – JOHN WHITAKER & Unick Du Francport (GBR)

3 – NIELS BRUYNSEELS & Ilusionata Van’t Meulenhof (BEL)

Winning owner: Ebba Berglof

Breeder: Krister Svedberg

LGCT of London, Royal Hospital Chelsea

IF the thrilling action between British and Swedish riders in Tokyo wasn’t enough, the tussle spilled over into London’s Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) grand prix, with individual silver and team gold medallist Peder Fredricson winning by a whisker over the British challenge.

It was the indefatigable John Whitaker, who has only jumped a handful of five-star shows since the start of 2019, who gave the reigning European champion a run for his money, jumping three brilliant rounds on the low-mileage Unick Du Francport.

The consensus was that Uliano Vezzani’s track was big and six clears made the jump-off, with Alexandra Thornton (Cornetto K) finishing next-best of the Brits in seventh on one time-fault.