October 25, 2020 
“It’s the stuff dreams are made of…”
—Laura Collett, winner of Les 5 Étoiles de Pau, 2020
It’s hard not to want to add an *asterisk to everything 2020 these days, to want to call it Pau* the COVID edition, as if it was somehow less of an achievement than winning any other year.
Truth is, Great Britain’s Laura Collett and Piggy March, as well as New Zealand’s Tim Price (your top three podium finishers right there) are, and have been for some time, among the very best in the world at what they do. Full stop.
Laura Collett (GBR) and London 52 finished the only CCI5*-L of the year Sunday afternoon on their dressage score, which alone is no mean feat at the 5* level. But when you realize said dressage score was a record setting 21.3, to which they added nothing across country, passed the third horse inspection (not everyone did) and then added nothing again in the final test of stadium jumping… on a horse making his debut at the 5* level to boot.
“I still don’t quite believe all this is really happening,” said Collett. “He’s a fantastic jumper. I really wasn’t expecting this kind of result at the end of the day!”
Runners up, Piggy March (GBR) and Brookfield Inocent also finished on their dressage score, an incredible 22.2. March is no stranger to 5* success, winning Badminton in 2019 and finishing fourth in Kentucky the week prior to Badminton. Brookfield Inocent was also making his debut at this level this week and along with Collett’s London 52 will be exciting to watch for the future.
(And as an aside, watching on the live stream, it looked like there was quite possibly nobody happier for Laura Collett’s win at the end of the day than Piggy March.)
New Zealand’s Tim Price rounded out the top three with long-time partner Wesko, adding a fraction of a fault for time to finish on a score of 24.2. Wesko was his third ride of the day, also finishing in 13th with Xavier Fair and 14th with Ringwood Sky Boy.
Jonelle, his wife (and exceptionally successful 5* competitor in her own right) finished in 12th with Grovine de Reve, having withdrawn her second ride Faerie Dianimo on XC the day before.
“Of course third doesn’t have the same feel as victory…” (spoken like someone very used to winning!) Price said. “But I’m really happy to finish the weekend without any (jumping) penalties. Wesko is old, but he’s a great horse and I’m enjoying riding him for as long as I can at this level.”
Seven of the top 10 finishers are British, including current world number one Oliver Townend on MHS King Joules, who was held for re-inspection at the trot up Sunday morning but passed on the second try. They jumped clean Sunday to finish in sixth.
Making the home crowd happy as the highest place French competitors were Alexis Goury with his very expressive and bouncy little chestnut spitfire Trompe L’Oeil D’Emery; and Maxime Livio with Vitorio du Montet, who finished in seventh and eighth respectively.
Goury was exuberant and rightfully proud of his result, especially as he explained: “At this 5* event in Pau there were two British Olympic teams to compete against, so the competition was fierce!” (Of the 34 pairs to complete the weekend successfully, 19 are British.)
As expected, everyone over the course of the weekend took great pains to thank the organizers for putting on a safe show that even included spectators (which admittedly was a little odd to see on the livestream after the rest of the 2020 season was either cancelled or spectator-free.)
Laura Collett mentioned it following cross-country and it seems a fitting point to end on.
“It felt quite strange to have crowds, because we haven’t had any at competitions at home, so for the horses it was quite a shock—particularly when coming from the quiet of the stables into all the people and the noise. But after being at Le Lion last week, which was eerie and strange without people, it was great to be able to go out with the buzz of the crowd… The crowds here are amazing. They cheer you on, and they will you and want you to keep going, and that makes it really special.”
Well said Laura, and well done everyone. We can’t wait until we can be there in person again sometime soon.
