Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker moved up from tenth place to third as the season’s last 5-Star event ended at Pau on Sunday.
New Zealand’s Tim Price won with the Dutchbred Jarillo, going from fourth in dressage to third after cross-country. He was then double-clear over the show jumping course designed by Yann Royant for the French event and finished with 30.9 penalties.
Great Britain’s Tom Jackson, thirty-first after dressage with Plot Twist B, improved his standing to eighth following a double-clear aboard the Irish Sport Horse on cross-country. He had no penalties in the show jumping to wind up second on 33.2 penalties after quite a climb through the ranks.
Boyd logged just 0.4 time penalties to make the podium aboard Cooley Nutcracker. His mount is the horse Liz Halliday rode in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Boyd took over part of her string of horses after she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a cross-country fall in August 2024. Liz was on the phone cheering for her horse and its rider as they show jumped.
Tenth after both dressage and cross-country, Boyd rose with 33.9 penalties in total. It was his second third-place finish in a row. He had the same result last weekend in the Maryland 5-Star with Commando 3. The second-best American was Cosby Green, eleventh with Highly Suspicious (39.7).
But Emily Hamel of the U.S. and Corvett set a record as the only horse-and-rider combination to complete all six of the 5-Stars in the Northern Hemisphere. (There is only one 5-Star in the Southerrn Hemisphere). Corvett, an 18-year-old Holsteiner by Corrido, was forty-second in dressage, and clear of jumping penalties with only 7.2 time penalties on cross-country to rise to twenty-fifth.
In show jumping, he produced one of only 10 clears to move up another 11 places to end in the fourteenth spot.
Sarah Bullimore of Great Britain, in first place after cross-country with 5-star debutante Corimiro, dropped to fifth, just 0.1 time penalties behind Tim Price and Happy Boy (34.2) after toppling a pole in show jumping and collecting 0.4 time penalties. Sarah wrapped up on 34.4 penalties.
The leader after dressage, Cannavaro, who was second following cross-country, was not re-presented after going to the hold box in the final horse inspection. Bubby Upton’s ride for Great Britain is 18 years old.
Oliver Townend’s great campaigner, Ballaghmor Class, finished twenty-first after a frangible pin penalty on cross-country and a difficult show jumping round. Another 18-year-old, this horse had three rails in the final segment to end on 50.3 penalties.
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