Ben Maher wins Chester Masters on Robin Hood!!

Brilliant, hopefully this form will continue into the olympics!!
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I was at Chester yesterday and it was a fabulous day. I was in my element surrounded by the most amazing horses but Robin Hood blew me away.

The height over fences is incredible. What a fantstic prospect for the Olympics. Good Luck Ben and lucky you Godiva!!!
 
As they say, cream rises! I was going to put a tenner on him but that would have put the kiss of death on him like it did jos, so you owe me
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I am really pleased that Robin hood is going well for you both as you deserve success and the enjoyment after all the efffort you put into Quainton.

The Chester show was an interesting format and a step in the right direction with regards to showjumping and I am sure that lessons would have been learnt for next time.
 
Congrats to Ben for a great win ! Would have loved to have gone but too far for me and also held on work days, hope it was busy so they will do it again but not sure as pics from local papers show empty grandstands.
 
I took the day off and went with my wife and 2 daughters.
It was fairly quiet, we were in the grandstand but it certainly wasn't empty. I'm sure the organisers would have been happier with a bigger turn out, but from a spectator's point of view it was a great opportunity to see all those top class horses & riders - including members of the GBR Olympic team - up close and personal.
We had a good chat and photos with Tim Stockdale and Ben Maher - try doing that at busy event.
The matchplay format and betting added some additional excitement to the proceedings but, if they run this event again, they should drop the cheerleaders, "signature tunes" and other obtrusive music - Ben's winner's interview was completely drowned out. Call me old fashioned if you like, but show jumping isn't NHL and hopefully never will be. The things that will attact showjumping audiences are exciting competition and access to their favourite star riders, not American style razzmatazz.
Good luck to Ben and the rest of the GBR team!!
 
I would agree that the day and location were probably not the best (we had to take a day off work with a 5hour drive there and back to see our horse go the worse he has done, (there was a reason for this which makes me feel slightly better) but the facilities for the horses were very good and it was also aimed at more than just SJ fans. it was interesting to see a few people having small bets and I think it could potentially catch on as a good day out (as I had to drive, very envious of the jugs of pimms that were there). It was also an interesting format as in the first round you had to push on for time which made a few people make mistakes which makes it better to watch. I think there were 12 clear rounds so 2 unfortunatly missed the cut for the jump off. The class was actually pretty good and having a break after every 10 riders was a good idea and perhaps they can work with different formats using the groups. The class overall was good to watch with thrills and spills (Paul Barker had a nasty looking fall when his foot got stuck in the stirrup), and it was good to see so many people asking riders for autographs.

I think the intro music could have been a bit better put together and a bit longer but this could be something to do with license rules and they should have had music in between the rounds to keep the momentum going and although the commentators were good and clear they don't exactly whip the crowd to a frenzy. It was also difficult to see the names on the polo tops. For the top 10 they got cheerleaders out, which bless them, they tried their best and at least they got people clapping when they came into the ring. Although there was good prize money to win, the atosphere was very relaxed. Overall a good idea, and with the right marketing and lessons learnt, definatly a step in the right direction.
 
I had my post sitting there whilst I had to do some work so they crossed over!! At the Hamburg show, they have intro music for the speed Derby and the commentator is very good and it is a brilliant class to watch as a spectator and you feel involved in the class. I don't think the Intro's really worked at Chester as they had obviously not been done by fat boy slim (no I don't mean Geoff Billington
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), but as it was the first tine it had been done, it was never going to be perfect. As a SJ fan, I want to be entertained by a good class with a good relaxed atmosphere (at Chester even the riders were clapping
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). I hate watching classes where nobody claps when a rider comes in, a polite applause when they go out, and deafining silence in between. It is dull and boring and one of the reasons none of my friends go to shows. Olympia is about the only place where there is an atmosphere because it has younger pople there and not full of 40 somethings (I include myself) as they are being entertained and not getting bored. Yes the cheerleaders make me cringe but I didn't thing they were intrusive.
 
Have just had a look at the official photo's and you would be hard pressed to find a spectator from the classes I have looked through . The busiest photo looks like the grandstand being a third full for a shot with Robert Smith in the main arena so all in all it looks a disappointing turnout which is such a shame as obviously a huge amount of effort went into producing the event.

I am not sure its just about age when creating atmosphere, I think its more to do with volumes of people sparking off of each other. Noise creates noise and Olympia is full to capacity of people sparking off each other. Its a great shame but from what I have seen on the photo's it wouldn't inspire me to travel all that way unless I had a horse entered.

I see it is now the Belgravia Masters ... Barclays didn't last long did they !!
 
IMHO you can't force people to enjoy themselves, if the competition is exciting then the crowd will be drawn in naturally. I think this was the case at Chester as most of the people sat round us were clapping, ooh-ing and aah-ing along with the action. If the crowd came across as quiet, it was because it was a small crowd, not because they weren't getting into it.
I have been telling everyone what a great event it was, so maybe next time more people will turn up.
BTW, I was stood taking photos right by the jump where Paul Barker came off. It looked worse than it was in the end as the stirrup leather came away quickly when the horse took off. It was good to see Paul up and about straight after & his horse kept ears & teeth despite Paul taking the bridle with him!
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I've got a great sequence of shots which I’ll try and post later.
 
You were by the burger van then
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I was talking to people back a bit so only saw it from behind so most probably did look worse. I just saw what looked like him dragged along a bit which could have been bad. Trust Paul not to give anything away!
 
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