Another successful Season for William Fox-Pitt
Sunday, October 19, 2008
By anyone’s standards, 2008 has proved a remarkably successful season for British rider William Fox-Pitt. But then so had the season before and the season before that…
The 39-year-old, three-time Olympic rider, winner of Bramham (CCI***), Luhmühlen, presented by E.ON Avacon (CCI****) and The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (CCI****) three-day events this year alone, is currently top of the HSBC FEI Classics™ Standings.
In the two months since his return from the Olympic Games in Hong Kong, William has had 40 competitive rides at 10 events, including Blair, Burghley and Boekelo three-day events. The weekend before Pau, he will be riding in the FEI World Championship for Young Eventing Horses, the three-day competition based at Le Lion D’Angers in France, travelling down to the south of the country for the French four-star, Les Etoiles de Pau, the final event of what will have been a long and busy season, where he will ride the Frenchbred Idalgo.
“Having a four-star event at the end of the season is a great incentive to keep going, and having talented horses to take there is always a bonus,” says William who has mixed memories of the top French event. “I’ve not had that many trips to Pau but I happily won a European team gold medal there in 2001 and, just as memorably but not so happily, had a run out at the fourth fence in the World Cup Eventing final in 2003. However, I am really looking forward to going there this year for the final event in the HSBC FEI Classics™ Series.”
William grew up in a household where horses and eventing was a way of life of life. Both his parents competed at Badminton and William had an early introduction to the sport. He was a member of British Junior and Young Rider teams and tasted early success, winning team and individual medals at European championships. His family’s enthusiasm and support enabled him to continue with a competitive eventing career while studying for a University degree in French, but on graduation, William chose the more precarious career route of horse sport. Hard work, dedication and an obvious talent and empathy with horses have, however, brought rich results. Success at Burghley in 1994 with Chaka attracted the interest of the British team selectors in the eye-catching 6ft 4in rider and he soon became a regular anchorman for the team. He has won five European team gold medals, plus individual silver and bronze, plus world team bronze and silver, and Olympic team silver and, this year, bronze. He was the first British rider to be world number 1, and he has won Badminton, in 2004 on Tamarillo, and Burghley five times, plus numerous other international three-day events and 11 national titles.
Success brings success, which has enabled William to build up a formidable team of horses and loyal owners over the last ten years. There are between 15 and 20 competing horses in the Dorset yard at any one time, from novice to international four-star level including stable star, the Badminton and Burghley winner Tamarillo, who will hopefully be back for another season next year; former novice champion and Bramham winner Navigator, and six-year-old Oslo, a young hope for the future who is heading for this weekend’s^(16th –19th Oct) FEI World Championship for Young Eventing Horses in Le Lion D’Angers.
Married to the television racing presenter Alice Plunkett, who is the only woman to have completed Badminton and the Grand National fences at Aintree, and now with a family of his own, two small sons, there is just one thing that William looks forward to more than the much-awaited family holiday once the eventing season is finished. “I love seeing the horses turned out in the field with their shoes off and then I can look forward to our holiday, although to be honest a general change of scene is as beneficial to me as to the horses,” said William.
However holidays are in the future and before then there is serious business to attend to at Les Etoiles de Pau. Not surprisingly William will start as one of the favourites for the event based close to the Pyrenees National Park, especially with his entry of Idalgo. While his place at the top of the HSBC FEI Classics™ Series is unthreatened, a win here would neatly wrap up a phenomenal season while collecting his cheque for US$150,000 for winning the HSBC FEI Classics™ Series will be the icing on the cake.
“Linking the world’s four-star events and promoting them together as a series makes a lot of sense as well as an exciting concept,” says William. “I am sure it will give the sport a higher profile and create interest outside of eventing.”
Les Etoiles des Pau has enjoyed a record number of entries this year, as several riders travel there in the hope of improving their HSBC FEI Classics™ Series standing before the final countdown. As the world number one points out, “Pau will prove a competitive and fitting climax to the end of the series.”
