Quel Filou
Just as there 5-year-old colleagues, the first part of the 6-year-old dressage horses entered the ring for their qualification round. Leading the intermediate rankings is Quel Filou, the Oldenburger Quarterback-son (ds. Stedinger) that won bronze as a three-year-old at the Bundeschampionat and was sold for 1 million euro at the PSI-auction that same year. Last year Quel Filou won the silver medal in Ermelo, at the time under the saddle of Sacha Schulz. Today the bay gelding showed to still possess those qualities. With Severo Jurado Lopeze he moved impressively to a score of 8.98.
Red Diamant
Susanne Baarup, president of the jury, was satisfied: “We saw some high-quality horses today, especially the top 5 is impressive. The first horse to start is still the best. As a jury, we rewarded natural balance and a natural frame as well as correct riding and the horse being a happy athlete. The best five horses are such complete horses, they have no weaknesses. It is great to see how the horses improved in their abilities over the last year. Clearly, dressage breeding has made a lot of progress.”
Nymphenburgs First Ampere
Second in the current rankings is Red Diamant (Romanov x Dream of Heidelberg), that was 1/10th below with the Danish rider Carina Cassøe Krüth at 8.88. The chestnut mare showed a consistent test and was closely followed by number three, the Hannover stallion Nymohenburg’s First Ampère (Ampère x Weltruhm) and the German rider Tessa Frank. The combination, that placed 9th in the finals of last year, scored 8.86. Susanne Baarup: “The bronze medal winner of last year, Guadeloupe-Beau, was tense in her canter today. As a result, her flying changes did not go according to plan and this lowered the submission grade quite substantially. It’s quite a pity, because she is truly a talented horse that we happily awarded a 9.4 for the trot.”
Tomorrow afternoon at 13.30 the qualification for 6-year-old horses continues.
