Renwick rules the castle

One rider lands a high five, Joe Whitaker celebrates a breakthrough victory and a veteran horse is back in the spotlight

- LUCY ELDER

LAURA RENWICK swept across Bolesworth in a cloud of glory, with her Midas touch landing on almost everything in her path.

Her victory in the AI Shira'aa grand prix with the eightyear-old Marseille crowned her exceptional week, which boasted five wins aboard three different horses.

Laura spoke openly at the start of the show about her hopes to build back up to the very top of the sport, and her recent results are testament to her own and husband John Renwick's gold-standard production of her young horses. Her talented band of rising stars is certainly shaping into a formidable squad.

Marseille, who joined Laura a year ago, is still relatively green, but while he is light on experience, he has ability, trainability and generosity of character in abundance.

"He's got huge amounts of scope I don't think there's a fence he couldn't jump," said Laura, who owns the Toulon son with Neil Fiddes.

"It's just a case of containing it all; he's just learning now how to prop, to shorten and how to do all these different things. I'm really excited about where he could end up." Rafael Suarez's first-round course thinned the field from 44 starters to a jump-off of 10 competitors from six different nations. With seven double clears, this became a test of speed.

Ireland's David Simpson a former Bolesworth grand prix winner - came closest, crossing the finish line just eight-hundredths of a second behind Laura to take the runner-up spot with his 2023 Hickstead Derby hero, Pjotr Van De Kruishoeve.