Andreas Helgstrand & Revolution
© Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
What a start of the Longines FEI/WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses! The top scorers burst with quality, and consequently a few hundredth of seconds can make the difference in the ranking that is headed by Andreas Helgstrand. The Danish rider, that won no less than six medals in earlier editions of the World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses, now scored 9.06 with the Westphalian stallion Revolution (Rocky Lee x Rouletto). The trot and perspective received a 9.5, the walk an 8.8, the canter a 9 and the 8.5 for submission completed the score report.
Mattias Alexander Rath & Destacado
© Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
In a shared second place, following by only 2/100th of Helgstrand and Revolution, we find today’s Prix St. Georges winner: Alexander Mathias Rath, this time in the saddle of Destacado (Desperados x Londonderry) and Frederic Wandres and the Oldenburg-stallion Zucchero (Zonik N.O.P. x Prince Thatch xx). Both of them received excellent grades for the gaits, where Destacado approached the ultimate 10 in his walk that was rewarded with a 9.8. With a solid 9.1 for the trot, a 9 for the canter and a 9.4 for perspective, only the 7.9 for submission brought the average down slightly and resulted in the shared second place. Zucchero shared this position with the following grade list: trot 9, walk 9.7, canter 8.7, submission 8.7 and perspective 9.1.
Helgenstrand also claimed the fourth prize in the intermediate rankings, this turn with DWB-gelding Zhaplin Langholt (Zonik N.O.P. x Stedinger). Right behind him was the Dutch rider Emmelie Scholtens and the KWPN-stallion Indian Rock (Apache x Vivaldi). She also won six medals in previous edition, three of which in the colour gold.
Wandres Frederic, GER, Zucchero
© Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
President of the judges Mariette Sanders was extremely satisfied: “What an excellent first day! I think we saw beautiful sport and some remarkable horses in the top, truly well-rounded horses. It is warm, but the horses coped very well. I am very satisfied, also about the quality in general. We saw only a few low-scoring horses. On the whole, all lovely horses with a strong top that stands out clearly. In other words, it will be an exciting final. I certainly do not think this intermediate ranking is written in stone. I do not dare to predict the top five for Saturday, because all of them had a few small issues in the test. So it can go in every direction!”
Usually, the best 12 horses obtain a ticket to the final, however because of an ex aequo result in place 12, 13 horses may now advance to the final. The best three of the small final that is ridden tomorrow, will be added to this group. So that, in principle, we see 16 horses back in the arena on Saturday.
