Great Britain’s Matthew Sampson and the 12-year-old gelding Latte Macchiato produced a stunning speed round to win the SITIP Two-Phase, the opening international competition at Jumping Verona 2025 this afternoon.
First into the arena after the halfway competition break, the pair were chasing longtime leader Barbara Schnieper from Switzerland who set the pace with Coco GZ in 32.24 seconds. With consummate ease however, the British pair shaved almost three seconds off that when breaking the beam in 29.56, and none of the rest could get anywhere close to the new target time, Germany’s Daniel Deusser and Kaduna JLZ slotting into third in 32.42.
Latte Macchiato is owned by the Gachoud family who train with Sampson, but with regular rider, Christina Gachoud, out of action the horse was passed on to Matt and the new pairing have quickly proved to be quite some combination.
Fantastic
“He’s been fantastic!”, Sampson said today of the Irish-bred horse who is by Pacino and was previously jointly-owned by Irish riders Shane Breen and Bertram Allen before going to the Gachoud family.
“He won in St Tropez (France) and in Oliva (Spain) he won two classes over the last few weeks – this is his first indoor show of the year and also his first-ever 5-Star, so everybody is delighted!”, said the man who was a member of the silver-medal-winning team at the FEI European Championships in A Coruna, Spain in July.
In love
This is the British rider’s first time in Verona. “I’m a very big horse person, and to see so many people celebrating the horse is just incredible!”, he said today.
And he’s very impressed with the way Jumping Verona is organised. “One thing many shows can take from Verona is we are not jumping at ten o’clock at night. Always we’re thinking about the horses, but the grooms looking after them, sometimes the days can be really, really long for them. They are in the stables before anyone is out of bed and working so hard, so for them to be able to finish and have a nice time and still enjoy the classes and the show without being exhausted is a credit to the show!”, he insisted.
Ph. JV/SGrasso
