Valmy repeats his triumph

Emily King and Valmy Biats take top honours again at this pre-Badminton fixture, while an educational run” yields a win for Tim Price’s rising star Jarillo

- LUCY ELDER

EMILY KING and Valmy Biats led a world-class field from start to finish, successfully defending their Lycetts Grantham Cup title.

The pair’s win here 12 months ago was their biggest to date. One year on and with the wealth of a further season of five-star experience under their belts, this was seismic for different reasons.

As the first CC4*-S of the British eventing season, the Grantham Cup is always a high-quality class, used by many of the world’s best as a competitive run on their pathway to spring five-stars. With the Paris Olympics on the horizon and combinations hoping to catch the eye of selectors, 2024 was a vintage year in front of a record crowd.

“It was the smoothest, easiest, in-sync cross-country round I think I’ve ever had with him,” said Emily, who owns the 15-year-old gelding with his breeder Philippe Brivois and the Valmy Biats Syndicate.

“Normally, he’s quite lairy, really brave and strong – you have to really set up for everything. I had what I needed to do everywhere planned, but I didn’t need to as he was doing it on his own.”

Big-stage exposure over the past year, including three five-star starts, has contributed to Valmy’s improvements. His leading dressage score of 23.2 was an international career best and put him on equal standing after the first phase with world champions Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir.

Valmy, who lives out, enjoys the early spring ground and jumped double clear with the second-fastest cross-country time to win comfortably on 29.6 – the sole sub-30 finishing score in both CCI4*-S sections.