A marker in the sand for Team Price today at Pau as they attempted to run 6 horses at 5 star in one day and support Cosby Green with her 2 horses as well. I’m not so sure about ‘it takes a village’, more like a suburb with Alys looking after Abel and Otis, Beaney running the equivalent of a field kitchen, Rosie, Louella, Twm and Sean the horses, NZ team vet Jon Hurcomb, NZ physio Alice Dorman and a huge number of owners supporting and nervously awaiting the outcome of the day.
Jonelle, no surprise, turned out to be a brilliant pathfinder on Grappa Nera (Grape), going all the direct ways and jumping a superb clear round adding just 7.6 time to climb from 36th to 24th. Jonelle had made no secret of her dislike for Pierre le Groupil’s’s course with it’s half distance measures and in her post run interview she stated that having to add in combinations meant the clock slipped away from you. Grape is an utter dude though, she doesn’t like slowing down and doesn’t give Jonelle the easiest ride into combinations but she has the heart of a lion and never stopped reading the flags and galloped right to the finish.
Tim headed out on first timer at this level Global Quest (George) before Jonelle had finished and gave him all the benefit of his experience. He started out sensibly and gradually increased the gallop as George tackled every question and came up with the right answers. The last water wasn’t perfect, they didn’t get a great distance up the step to the brush but George kept on going and you cant teach a horse that, they either want to do it or they use it as an excuse. George came home with 6.4 time to sit just ahead of Jonelle and Grape having climbed from 39th to 23rd and is a newly minted 5 star horse in his own right.
Señor Crocodillo (Diego) was Jonelle’s second ride and he looked every inch the 5 star horse as he ate up the ground and the twisty track. It seemed that Jonelle’s plan to run him at Lignieres with its international atmosphere as a warm up had paid off as he looked very much more relaxed than at Luhmuhlen and hardly shook his head at her at all which is quite the breakthrough, especially on such a rider controlling course like Pau. They never had a moment and stopped the clock with 7.2 time to sit in 18th.
Happy Boy in the middle of the running for Tim. I think the only person who knew what Happy was going to do today was probably Happy himself. The stats were not great: out of 11 starts in 2025 Happy went clear cross country in 4 OI’s and 1 x 3*Short. At Advanced, 4*S and 5*L (Kentucky) he either eliminated or had refusals. Happy looked decidedly cocky at the start box as though he knew he, and only he, could decide whether it was a Happy day or a Crappy day.
And thankfully he decided upon the former and was the brilliant athlete we all know that he can be. Anyone that saw him today would not have believed how many times he has sauntered back to the truck with that insouciant expression on his naughty face as he was simply brilliant with a day that he hasn’t repeated since he won Blenheim in 2024. Tim took one long route at the three part combination in the water after the big ditch and brush…it was the bogey combination with its option of two long or three short to the corner in the water followed by a triple brush arrowhead and big names like Ollie Townend and Tom McEwen had picked up 11 penalties when their horses fiddled an extra stride and crashed the corner. Happy thinks far too much of his pretty face to crash anything and he popped the option route neatly and quickly. 5.2 time was quick with an option and they sit in 11th place with a 5 star clear under their belt. Who ever would have thought it?!
By the time Jonelle and Hiarado (Jools) set out there had been the usual 5 star bad luck and misfortune tales that scuppered the best laid plans. Emily King had fallen off Valmy Biats at fence 2, Tom McEwen had retired, Ollie Townend had picked up an 11 penalty on the legendary Ballaghmor Class, Bubby Upton, so strong in the dressage on her three, only brought one home. Jools had waited all day for her turn and she fired out of the start box with her usual expression of ‘let’s DO this!’ and was simply brilliant. Like Aachen she was good to go from fence 1 and loved every minute of the track, never made a single mistake and picked up exactly the same time faults, 7.2 as Diego to slip one place above him in 17th.
Tim and Jarillo (Milo) were the final combination out on course to the delight of the crowds as he was the only one who could evict the current leader, Sarah Bullimore. Milo found Pau tough last year as his first five star in a slog of sloppy mud which sapped his foreign blood although he did rally and come home well. He was brilliant in Kentucky and despite a horrific over reach finished well but that was the end of his spring campaign and it’s thanks to his dedicated farrier (Andrew Nickalls) that he’s in such good shape now. Milo is careful, classy, scoopey and he has learnt to find his stamina with Tim’s help. Tim went long again at the problematic water and hats off to Milo that despite that he added just 4.4 time to sit in third overnight, just 0.9 off the lead and 0.5 off second. Just 6 combinations made time all day despite the good ground which isn’t a bad thing for a 5 star at all.
Just a single rail covers the top 10 and it’s always a notoriously big and technical showjumping at Pau. Great to see Cosby Green adding another two clears at 5 star to her tally with Jos Ufo de Quidam (Ufo) and Highly Suspicious (Puff) which is equally impressive. But whatever happens tomorrow today is one for the history books for Team Price: 6 out of 6 clear rounds at five star for a husband and wife team. That is a first in the history of the sport and it is a testament to Tim and Jonelle’s talent and the team that love to work alongside them.
