After Friday’s Nations Cup team event at Jumping International de La Baule, Steve Guerdat walked away from the arena despondent.The Swiss team, of which he was the anchor rider, had finished sixth, and the 2012 Olympics’ individual jumping champion had knocked a pole in each of the two rounds, pushing him out of the story. “I wasn’t sure I was going to make the qualification for (Sunday’s) Grand Prix,” he said to broadcaster ClipMyHorse.But on Saturday morning, when riding along the beach that famously borders La Baule’s showground, he decided to change his mindset ahead of his entries into the day’s premier classes, the Prix Saur and the Derby de la Baule.“Coming back, I saw all the people waiting to get into the show, and I thought, ‘OK, there’s one more day, and there’s two good classes today — you’ve got to try your best, because this public deserves good sport’. I feel blessed being able to do what I do, and ride in front of such a crowd in this stadium,” the 44-year-old added.His first ride of the day came on the 13-year-old Lancelotta, with whom he’s been partnered for just 18 months after taking the reins from Uzbekistan’s Nurjan Tuyakbaev.They repeated the performance that won them the STX Horsetrucks top-ranked CSIO5* class at the Brussels Masters a year ago, and the CSI5* Audi Prize at the Dutch Masters in March, delivering a smart clear in the first round and a blisteringly fast 36.57-second jump-off round to clinch victory in the €110,000 ($127,258; £94,927) Prix Saur against 66 of the world’s best-ranked riders and their horses.But his day in the office was far from finished.La Baule’s most unique class is its Saturday-afternoon Derby, a marathon effort that spans 26 jumping efforts and over two minutes of jumping — a far cry from a jump-off class, which halves that time and effort in the first round, and halves it again in its against-the-clock finale.Different, too, are the obstacles encountered. Though the usual fare of lightweight, airy vertical fences and colossally wide parallel bars, or oxers, still come into play, there’s also a selection of natural fences — a water crossing to splash through, up and downhill trajectories, and a series of bank fences that ask horses not just to leap up and over, but down and out of a playground of jumps.There is just one round, and clears are so rare the winner can be chosen just based on time and accuracy.Twelve months ago, Guerdat cruised to victory in this class on French-bred stallion Easy Star de Talma. This time, he would have to wait until all 12 of his competitors had tackled the course before he would get the chance to try again.La Baule’s most unique class is its Saturday afternoon Derby (Luis Ruas / Rolex Series)His Swiss countryman Martin Fuchs had held the lead from the midpoint of the class, delivering one of just two clears so far aboard the 10-year-old Love de Vie, and stopping the clock on 130.54 seconds. It was Fuchs he needed to beat, and Guerdat knew he could trust in Easy Star de Talma’s economy of movement to do the job.The impressive stallion was one of the smallest horses in the field but also among the most adjustable, with a long natural stride, and that allowed Guerdat to land from each fence travelling at his optimal cruising speed with no time wasted on rebalancing. That afforded him the luxury of choosing more direct lines, and riding the stride patterns as they were set, to ensure the clear round.The clock agreed with the strategy, and their 129.73 time sealed the deal on Guerdat’s second victory of the day.“Martin was fast, and I wasn’t sure I could have him,” said Guerdat. “I was lucky that Richard (Vogel, who finished fourth) had the one down, because he was way faster, but I managed to get a good rhythm without overriding.“I was just trying to keep that rhythm just a few more percent than last year, using the horse’s big stride.”