‘We're slightly overqualified!'

An Olympian from Canada prevents a British whitewash in the grand prix, but otherwise the national anthem rings proud throughout three days of high-calibre action

THE British had dominated every CSI2* class until the final showdown, when Canadian Olympian Tiffany Foster and her experienced international five-star campaigner Brighton blitzed to victory in the Champagne Piaff grand prix.

Tiffany’s “super-fast” 15-year old gelding was jumping below his scope in the 1.45m finale and showed some phenomenal ability to keep the pace round the turns to drive home a 1.17sec win.

Ben Maher’s pupil Flo Norris (Nequila) and Olli Fletcher (Hello William) were able to pick up third and fourth from late bids behind early leader Skye Morssinkhof (G-Vingino-Blue) in the runner-up spot.

“He spends no time in the air and is just really competitive,” said Tiffany. “We’re slightly over-qualified! But I also knew it wasn’t going to be for free.”

Tiffany’s last appearance at the London LGCT was in the five-star classes in 2017, but on this occasion she arrived with four students as part of a European tour.

“We decided to come as we know showing in England is so fun,” she said. “I figured I’d bring ‘Brighty’ along for the ride and I also brought a new eight-year-old, bought for [student] Isabele Coxe’s family.

“The format is a little different now [on the LGCT] and to jump the five-star I’d have to be part of the GCL or in the top 20 and I am not, so I opted to come with some students for the two-star instead.”

WINNING DOUBLES