Once again The Netherlands and Poland enjoyed a short afternoon as neither qualified for the second round of competition, and, in an alarming turn of events for the reigning World Champions from Holland, they are now languishing at the very bottom of the leaderboard along with the rookie Polish side and in grave danger of losing their elevated status as Meydan series contenders.

Course designer Uliano Vezzani was clear about what he was trying to achieve over his 12-fence track at the lovely Piazza di Siena showground. "I prefer athletes to make small faults rather than big crashes. The safety aspect was very important for me, first that of the horse, then that of the rider" he said before the competition, and the only real drama of the day was the unexpected first-round elimination of the star American partnership of Richard Spooner and Cristallo.

PRINCIPAL PROBLEM-AREAS
The principal problem-areas on the track were at the triple-combination at fence five and the line through the double at fence 10 - vertical to oxer - which was followed by a water-tray oxer at 11 before turning for home over the final 1.60m vertical.  The double was approached on an S-bend left-hand turn, and when Spooner asked his 12 year old Holsteiner for a massive stand-off here, Cristallo decided it wasn't going to work and slammed on the brakes, and he was still in no mood to take it on when requested to do so a second time so US faces were looking glum as the elimination showed on the scoreboard.

By the half-way point the formidable French were already sharing the lead with the surprising Spanish - both carrying just four faults - while it was a truly tight battle further down the order as Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden shared third place with eight faults apiece.  Italy had already clocked up 12, and the USA was lying in ninth place with a total of 16 after four-fault results for both Beezie Madden (Mademoiselle) and Mario Deslauriers (Urico) and eight for McLain Ward (Sapphire).

With 17 on the board the Dutch day was done, but Poland's learning curve is clearly continuing.  Pathfinder Andrzej Lemanski produced a superb clear jumping round with the powerful 11 year old Castiglione, collecting just a single time penalty.  However two 12-fault results and eight from Krzysztof Ludwiczak (Torado) proved too costly and they sat it out with the team from The Netherlands as round two got underway. 

SPIRITED RECOVERY
The Americans made a spirited recovery led by a brilliant clear this time out for Spooner and Cristallo who jumped the infamous double without even blinking and the USA finished on a total of 20 faults.  The Italians added 12 more to complete on 24, the Swiss lost their grip on joint-third spot when adding 20 to their tally but the Irish held firm thanks to clears from both Cameron Hanley (Southwind VDL) and Cian O'Connor (K Club Lady) and were always going to be in the running when adding just four from anchorman Billy Twomey with Tinka's Serenade.

Janne-Fredericke Meyer (Cellagon Lambrasco) produced one of just three double-clears to help her team to a 16-fault finishing score but the British really rose to the occasion when Nick Skelton (Carlo), Peter Charles (Murka's Pom d'Ami) and the veteran John Whitaker (Peppermill) all returned clean score-sheets this time out.

The Swedish team struggled in round two but put one more hard-fought point on the leaderboard while the Spanish couldn't maintain the pressure on the French in the closing stages and dropped to equal-third.  Such was the supremacy of the winning side that when Penelope Leprevost (Mylord Carthago), Kevin Staut (Silvana) and Nicolas Delmotte (Luccianno) made it all look a little elementary second time out then Patrice Deleveau (Katchina Mail) didn't need to return to the ring for a second time.

TOP OF OUR SPORT
Reigning European champion Kevin Staut put it in context when he said afterwards "we really are at the top of our sport in France right now and I'm really proud to ride in this French team.  We are full of new hopes and new dreams and we have come out this season knowing that four teams will go down from the Meydan series and so we are fully organised from the very beginning".  He complimented the course designers work - "Mr Vezzani thinks always about the welfare of the horses, he doesn't punish them but he still gets great results, that's the measure of a good course designer" he said.  And he was particularly pleased with his mare Silvana who picked up just four faults on her Nations Cup debut.

Staut's team manager, Laurent Elias said of his country's double of wins, "it not down to chance, a lot of hard work has gone into achieving these performances, including the work of the French Federation.  And we also have a great horse-breeding culture in France - we have excellent horses" he added.

The next stop is St Gallen in Switzerland next week and with the 2010 Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ already nearing the halfway point it is already getting serious.  In a bizarre turn of events the European champions from Switzerland and the World Champions from The Netherlands are within the danger-zone of the last four places on the leaderboard along with Sweden and Poland.  All four nations will be hoping to made amends for that in seven days' time.