The home crowd had plenty to cheer about when their own Emanuele Gaudiano jumped four spectacular clear rounds with the 10-year-old gelding Jaja to win the Loro Piana Six-Bar competition at CSIO Rome - Master d’Inzeo 2024 at Piazza di Siena this afternoon.

A total of 11 horse-and-rider combinations lined out in the first round, and by the time it came to the first jump-off the final fence in the line of six was already standing at 1.75m. This time around there were clears from Italy’s Nico Lupino (Next Twist Van’t Ruytershof), Austria’s Katharina Rhomberg (Zarzuela OLD) and Max Kuhner (Count Me In 19), Gaudiano and Ireland’s Daniel Coyle (Lena VDL).

But the second jump-off, with the final vertical now a full 1.85m hight, saw only Gaudiano and Coyle leave all the fences intact one more time. So it came down to a two-way third jump-off with the spectators willing their own man to win it for the third time in his career.

He didn’t disappoint

With the last fence now at a massive 1.95m, the Italian rider’s 10-year-old grey which was previously ridden by The Netherland’s Pim Mulder and then Italy’s Giulia Gandolfi before Gaudiano took up the reins 12 months ago, jumped clean and clear once again to really pile the pressure on Coyle.

The Irishman has a lot of experience in Puissance competitions with multiple big wins, but this was his first international Six-Bar challenge and as he rode down the line of fences, reduced to four for the last two rounds, he was looking good until his seven-year-old mare Lena clipped the very last to hand the win to his only rival.

With their final total of four faults Lupino, Kuhner and George shared third place while Frenchman George slotted into sixth.