First 5* class of Friday, first Belgian shot fired, first victory at this level for the pair. This Friday morning, Grégory Wathelet and Romance van de Padenborre opened the Jumping International de La Baule with a 1.45m speed class timed like a Swiss watch, but with Belgian know-how.

La Baule, 10:30 a.m., strong coffee and a red-hot clock

Some mornings feel like a gentle stroll. And then there are mornings when Grégory Wathelet decides, without really deciding, to put everyone in agreement in the first 5* class of Friday morning at La Baule.

On the grass of the Stade François-André, the Belgian rider had not necessarily marked this 1.45m speed class as a target for victory. With Romance van de Padenborre, a nine-year-old mare still in the making, the idea was fairly simple: gain experience, jump on grass, feel out a venue where nobody really turns up by accident.

The result: 56.21 seconds, a perfectly controlled clear round, and the pair’s first 5* victory.

Not bad for a mare discovering La Baule.

Romance, not quite the summer hit yet, but already a tune that sticks

A daughter of Iron Man van de Padenborre, whom Wathelet himself rode a few years ago, and a granddaughter of For Pleasure, Romance did not exactly enter the Belgian rider’s string through the side door. But her story was not written in a straight line.

“Romance is a mare we bought when she was five. She had a bit of temperament when she was young, so it took us a little time to discover her, to understand her. And over the last two years, I think she has really developed and accepted what we were asking of her.”

Before coming under Wathelet’s saddle, the mare was first entrusted to his riders to gain experience. The kind of patient construction that does not always make headlines, but often produces real sport horses.

“I think she has good potential, so I decided to take her back. She started the year at the Sunshine Tour. I got to know her a little, with some good things and some less good things.”

And since Windsor, where she contested her first CSI 5* in mid-May over 1.50m classes, the curve has started to point seriously upwards.

“Already at Windsor three weeks ago, she had done some really good things. And here, she confirms a little bit what I think of her. She is still a mare in training, she still has a lot to learn, and she still has to really show us what she will end up jumping. I don’t know yet, but in any case, she is going to be very interesting at a good level.”

She had not even come to win, and that is the worst part

What makes the whole thing even tastier is that Wathelet did not arrive with the knife between his teeth. Well, not officially. The goal was not to smash the clock. Even less to go after Henrik von Eckermann and Glamour Girl on their own turf: pure speed.

“No, not at all. I had decided to do these two classes, yesterday and today, 1.45m, to give her experience, to let her jump a little on grass. Of course, you always want to be competitive. I know she can be quick. I have not really run many speed classes with her yet, so I do not have many points to lose.”

But sometimes, a training plan turns into a very clean hold-up. Romance understood the game. Wathelet did too. And when a horse is quick across the ground, reactive over the fences and nicely in the flow, the seconds disappear without it ever looking like a bank job.

“I started with a plan, and from the beginning I felt that she wanted to play the game, that she wanted to be good. So I carried on with my plan.”

Behind them, the comparison gives even more weight to the performance. Henrik von Eckermann and Glamour Girl, references in the genre, had to settle for second place in 57.82 seconds. Abdulrahman Alrajhi completed the podium for Saudi Arabia with Kandice Chavannaise, clear in 58.46 seconds.

Romance had already wrapped it up.

A daughter of Iron Man, but no carbon copy

Naturally, the pedigree invites comparison. Iron Man van de Padenborre, her sire, was also part of Wathelet’s story. But the Belgian refuses the easy shortcut. Romance is not a miniature version of her father. She has her own engine, her own chassis, her own software.

Compared to her father, Iron Man, whom I rode and knew very well, she is quite different, lighter, lighter on the ground, more like that in her way of being. But yes, that is why we bought her as a five-year-old, because she was by our stallion at the time and she interested us. And yes, she is showing some very interesting things, but things that are still quite different from her father.”

Different, then. But interesting. Very interesting, even.

At nine years old, Romance van de Padenborre has not said everything yet. La Baule may only have been one step in her education. It turned into an invitation card for what comes next.

Find the full results of the class here.