Galileo discovers a winning formula

A winter of hard work pays dividends for one horse, while one combination impresses on an intermediate debut

- LUCY ELDER

BURGHLEY runners-up David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed put their winter dressage training into action to win their opening run of the 2024 season.

The Badminton-bound pair scored 26.1 in the first phase in open intermediate (OI) section G, equal to Ros Canter and her Pau-winning ride Izilot DHI, and just shy of the 25.7 from dressage leaders Emily King and Valmy Biats.

David and the 13-year-old gelding, whom he owns with Gillian Jonas and Mary Fox, finished on their dressage score on every international start in 2023. But the last time they produced a sub-30 test was at Pau 2021, which makes their improvement in this first phase particularly noteworthy.

"It was lovely to be up there with Valmy Biats and Izilot DHI, who in the past he's been a few marks off," said David, who has been training with Adam Kemp and David Trott.

"Adam came to Oasby to warm me up it's great that he's got really stuck in with Galileo and some of the other horses this winter, it's made a big difference." David added that Galileo has "always been a bit of a greyhound" so they have been working on finding his inner weightlifter and bulking up his topline, along with improving suppleness.

"Cross-country was great and he was very enthusiastic.

I thought I had the handbrake on, but he still cantered around for just 6.4 time-faults," he said.

It was one of the quickest times of the day in Thursday's intermediate sections, which proved a happy hunting ground for David. The Wiltshire rider also finished third aboard Captain Tiger Tilly, with Emily and Valmy Biats sandwiched between David's horses in second. David also claimed fourth place in OI section F aboard Kenzo Power B.