ROME - As the sun set on the Villa Borghese gardens, the 83^rd inaugural Piazza di Siena equestrian event, one of the oldest in the world, continued into its ever-popular Saturday evening show jumping competition.  A title sponsor for almost 20 years, Loro Piana reprises its roleonce again to herald one of the top eight shows in the Grand Prix boasting riders from five different nations including Columbia, Sweden and the Netherlands as well as the The Italian Horse Show Jumping Team, typically elegant in their iconic Loro Piana’s “Horsey” jackets.

 Despite there having been rain throughout the afternoon, there was little to dampen the spirits of the crowd as the 14 horse-and-rider combinations prepared to compete in the Loro Piana Six-Bar event at 18:30 on Saturday evening.

 Notwithstanding a shaky start for the Italians as first rider Giampiero Garofalo on Bella Dior took home an early four point penalty, Emanuele Gaudiano and Caspar stamped their mark on the competition with a perfect round to qualify for the first jump off. Also going strong were Guido Grimaldi, Giovanni Lucchetti and Luca Moneta on Land Lord, Gojano Della Loggia and Quova de Vains respectively as well as the legendary Olympic Silver Medallist British rider John Whitaker who all joined Gaudiano in qualifying for the next stage with perfect jumps.

 Six time world champions and Olympians through their association with the Italian Equestrian Federation (FISE), the Loro Piana Jumping Team and the Italian Show Jumping team have competed together since 1985 and the latter looked immediately and visually formidable as the event got underway.

 As the final two bars raised to 1.70 m and an intimidating 1.85 m respectively, only Emanuele Gaudiano’s stunning stallion left them all untouched and the other eight who were faultless over the first line of six verticals failed to clear the second round, including Land Lord who nearly toppled rider Guido Grimaldi on the penultimate jump.

 By the time of the last rider, Luca Moneta, the atmosphere in the royal blue and gold Loro Piana stand was exultant as the crowd learnt of the inevitability of an Italian victor. Unfortunately for Moneta and Quova de Vains, the last proverbial and physical hurdle proved too much to overcome and a jubilant Emanuele Gaudiano took home the trophy.

 Having only initially planned to use the Loro Piana Six-Bar as training for Sunday’s Grand Prix event, the young Italian was jubilant speaking to reporters after his victory.

 “It was an exceptional result, especially considering it was Caspar’s very first time to compete in a Six-Bar class,” he said when describing the imposing grey. 

 “They could see their way home and some of them were going too much forward and were not concentrated, but Caspar listened to me and did a great job - and if he jumps like this tomorrow, well, who knows!” Gaudiano added, Friday’s runner-up ever-graceful in the trademark “Horsey” jacket.

 Considering the course difficulty, designer Uliano Vezzani choosing to implement a particularly short distance between the last two obstacles, 29 year old Gaudiano’s ability to exceed expectation evidently bodes well for the bright future of Italian equestrianism.