Falco proves Priceless

Rising equine stars are at the forefront in Pau, where Tim Price and Tom McEwen take the top placings on horses making their debut at the level

- LUCY ELDER

TIM PRICE sealed the fourth five-star victory of his career and with it showed he has a star for the future in his winning ride Falco.

The pair led from the front, strengthening their position on their lofty perch atop the constantly shuffling leaderboard with two flawless jumping rounds.

Watching the 12-year-old gelding’s intelligent face looking for each question across country, it was hard to believe this was the first time he had seen a five-star track. His burst of speed on the galloping stretches inside the final minutes showed that the gelding – who belongs to Sue Benson, Jackie Olivier and his rider – is the real deal.

As Tim rode into the showjumping arena, last to go on the final day, the carnage that preceded him meant he had a rail in hand. Sport loves to make fools of predictions and while Falco has rolled only five poles in his entire career – the last of which fell three-and-a-half years ago – nothing is certain with horses.

The Cardenio 2 son gave each jump feet to spare, prompting gasps from the crowd. The combination could well afford the 0.4 of a time-penalty they added to their final tally, giving Tim a five-star personal-best winning score of 22.5.

“You try not to think about all the things that could go wrong and I knew I was on a very good jumper,” said Tim. “So yes, there had been quite a lot of problems, but I felt if anyone was going to do a good job of it, it would be this horse. It was just my place to do an OK job on top.”