It was an Italian whitewash in this morning’s opening competition at CSIO Rome - Masters d’Inzeo at Piazza di Siena with Italian riders squeezing out the opposition when filling the top four places in the Parlanti Two-Phase led by Emilio Bicocchi. Riding Easy Time de Villa d’Arto, Bicocchi galloped through the finish .08 seconds quicker than Giampiero Garofalo and Emo in second place while Lorenzo De Luca and Zeta di Sabuci lined up third ahead of Paolo Adorno and Fer ZG in fourth.

Brazil’s Cassio Rivetti broke the host nation stranglehold when slotting into fifth with Kaiser van het Lambroeck, but Italy was back in the line-up again when Paolo Adamo Zuvadelli and Lorandus EH snatched sixth spot. Just over two seconds separated the top six in this hard-fought class, but less than a half second separated the top three.

“When you enter the arena, you are always aiming at victory, but you can’t always be successful, these are the rules of our game” explains Emilio. “It’s only been since the beginning of 2018 that I am riding Easy Time who is owned by Giorgia de Francesco and as she is now focused on her studies, I am riding him so this win is very exciting for her, for the horse and of course for me! Before entering the arena, I had been able to watch Giampiero Garofalo who had been leading the competition and he was very fast, so I knew I had to take some risks and then luck was also on my side and in the end everything went well. Easy Time is still not as handy, but he has a big stride and so in a formula like this one, I need to aim at taking out some strides. This does not necessarily produce the most beautiful rounds ever, but in the end the outcome was perfect!” he added.

“Here in Rome I also have Call Me who is my number one horse right now. He jumped well in the 1.50m yesterday and is qualified for the Grand Prix, so I think he will rest tomorrow and then go straight the GP on Sunday. Then I have Faiane, a very good eight year old mare and also Rondine del Terriccio, an real quality horse. I have very high hopes for her, she is the current Italian six-year-old champion and she will jump her class tomorrow evening” he continued.

“Piazza di Siena has undergone a great change compared to the previous editions. We are only at the beginning of the restoration programme and the overview on the green oval is really amazing. The sand arena we just jumped on today at the Gallopatoio is amazing for me as I just won on it  -and I think it was really a great idea!”, he said. Ph CsioRoma-MGrassia

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