Katie Dinan earned the honor Sunday, April 6, of being the only rider to jump flawlessly on the final day of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final—including the day’s daunting jump-off, with fences up to 1.65 meters—but it was Julien Epaillard whose performances over three days earned him the overall trophy as France’s first World Cup Finals winner in 21 years.

Epaillard employed some daring tactics along the way, forgoing his place in day two’s jump-off (and some considerable prize-money) in preference of conserving the energy of his homebred equine partner, having worked out that he would still hold onto his lead without contesting Friday’s second round against the clock. This strategy clearly paid off, as his 12-year-old Selle Français gelding Donatello D’Auge (Jarnac—Tequila D’Auge, Hello Pierville) returned in Sunday’s first round in Basel, Switzerland, to produce a crucial clear round that saw them hold a 3-fault advantage with just one round remaining.

“Today I felt him a little tired already in the first round,” Epaillard said. “We had a little rub, but he has a super head and with this he always wants to help me. Then he was maybe more fresh for the second round.”

Fellow countryman Kevin Staut, Great Britain’s Ben Maher and U.S. rider Lillie Keenan were the athletes poised perilously close to Epaillard, less than a fence behind him before Sunday’s second and final round. Of the 20 combinations qualified for the final round, only four delivered a faultless performance, but none were close enough in the overall standings to catch the podium. That included Dinan and Out Of The Blue SCF, who won the day with the only double clear round. 

“I am over the moon with my horse,” Dinan said of the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare (Verdi TN—Casa Blanca La Silla, San Patrignano Cassini) owned by Grant Road Partners LLC and cared for by Lou Beudin. “I really can’t believe it. We call her Bridie in the barn, and she just jumped her heart out this week. I felt like today she was going to go clear with or without me, so I just did the best I could to help her do her job and she absolutely delivered.

“She was bred in the U.S. by Lisa Lourie at Spy Coast Farm and developed through their young horse program, and we bought her at the end of her 9-year-old year,” she continued. “I feel like being here representing the USA on an American-bred horse isn’t something that you see very often, and it makes it a really special way to represent the country.”

With her performance Sunday, Dinan became the top-placed U.S. rider in the overall standings, finishing on 13 total penalties for eighth place overall.

For Keenan, three fences on the floor in the first round put an end to her podium dreams—she finished 11^th in the overall standings, second among the U.S. contingent—but took nothing away from her eye-catching performances in her first Longines FEI World Cup Final with the relatively inexperienced Kick On. Staut returned with 4 faults guaranteeing himself a podium position with his final score of 7 faults, albeit gifting Maher and Epaillard some breathing room. When Maher’s Point Break breathed on the final element of the ornate Cherry Blossom combination, he too completed on 7 faults and the door was left ajar for Epaillard as he knew he could afford to have one fence down, but not two.

“Donny,” undoubtedly benefitting from the energy conserved by not jumping off on Friday, returned to the stadium once more where the audience was perched on the edge of their seats waiting for history unfold. The little gelding with the heart of lion matched the enthusiasm of his pilot while demonstrating his incredible athleticism and immaculate technique. Approaching the final line, the scoreboard read 0, but so many rounds had fallen apart after this. An extra stride around the corner from fence 9 to 10 made the three strides down to 11A a little flat. Despite their best efforts, a rub here saw the partnership notch up their first fault of the week.

With two jumping efforts remaining, one being the final towering 1.65-meter vertical, and no fences in hand, 6,500 spectators held their breath in anticipation. With nerves of steel and riding on a partnership built on a lifetime of trust, Epaillard and Donny kept their composure to sail over the final two formidable obstacles, securing France’s first Longines FEI World Cup Final title in 21 years.

“I totally lost concentration before the last line,” he said. “After [Fence 9], I thought, ‘I’m close, I’m close!’ [to victory], and I lost concentration and came too deep to the double. I think if I helped him a little bit more, I could have jumped a double clear, but OK in any case, it was OK like this!” 

Watch their winning jump-off round, courtesy of FEI.tv:

Epaillard heaped praise on his horse.

“My horse is fantastic,” he said. “It’s a dream for all the staff working with me and my family. We work every day for this. There’s a lot of people around this performance so I’d like to thank everybody.”  

Maher, who finished second despite jumping three days with a recently broken foot, was philosophical in his reflection of his performance over the week and final result.

“A small mistake from myself on Friday meant I didn’t get it done enough early on and put myself on the back foot with no room for error,” he said. “Point Break deserved a little more from me, maybe a little more support going in there. But I can’t ask any more of the horse. Today he jumped perhaps the best he’s ever jumped, fluent and confident. It just didn’t go our way in the end. Julien is an incredible competitor and hard to beat on any given day, so congratulations to him.”

Staut was overjoyed with his horse and his second Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final podium finish, despite coming tantalizingly close to victory with Visconti Du Telman. “I can’t be sad because it was a really great competition,” he said. ” ‘Visconti’ gave everything, and it’s a Frenchman who is winning. It’s also two podiums for France at this final, which is really great. We’d have signed for that at the beginning of the week.”

For the U.S., four riders contested the final day of competition. Behind Dinan and Keenan, Kristen VanderVeen and Bull Run’s Jireh completed their first FEI Jumping World Cup Final together on a total combined score of 31 (19^th overall). Kaitlin Campbell and Castlefield Cornelious punched their ticket to Sunday’s Round B in their first World Cup Final appearance together, but a miscommunication at Fence 3 dislodged Campbell from the saddle, ending their day. Both Campbell and Castlefield Cornelious left the ring unharmed, still earning a spot inside the top 20 to conclude the week. 

“We had some really great results this week in Basel, and a few of our younger combinations really stepped up and showed off some class riding,” Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland said. “I was really impressed today in the first round when all four of our combinations laid down clear rounds. For Katie to finish the way she did with Out Of The Blue SCF was very impressive, considering none of the other combinations in the whole class delivered two consecutive clear rounds today.”

See complete results for Sunday’s competition.

See complete overall results.