Brazil’s Doda de Miranda and Cornetto K at the 2016 Rio Olympics
Cornetto K, the 10-year-old, Hanoverian gelding (Cornet Obolensky x Calido I) that Doda de Miranda rode to the best Brazilian finish at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, will now be seen under the saddle of Italy’s Alberto Zorzi.
Doda de Miranda finished within the top 10 individuals, in 9th place, at the Rio Olympics, putting in multiple clear rounds aboard Cornetto K, a horse that he had only been partnered with since January of 2016.
However, since the Olympic Games, Cornetto K’s competition schedule has been on hold due to separation proceedings between de Miranda and his estranged wife, Athina Onassis. Cornetto K was among a string of top international show jumpers that were owned by AD Sport Horses, the former partnership between de Miranda and Onassis.
de Miranda, who last competed Cornetto K in August, 2016 at Rio, hoped to keep the ride on the gelding, but Cornetto K’s ownership has remained under Onassis, and with the horse entered to compete this weekend at CSI5* Basel, Switzerland under Zorzi, that partnership is all but over.
For his part, Zorzi has been on an incredible upswing since last fall, when he rode to an upset win of the Longines FEI World Cup Qualifier at Oslo CSI5*-W. In 2015 Zorzi relocated from his native Italy to Valkenswaard, Holland to work and ride for Jan Tops. Last year he was given the ride on the mare Fair Light Van’t Heike, and quickly began to move up the levels.
Find out more about Italy’s Alberto Zorzi by clicking here.
Onassis trains with Tops and his wife, Edwina Tops Alexander of Australia, and her farm is adjacent to Stal Tops. Onassis herself made headlines in November when she purchased the talented Irish Sport Horse gelding Going Global.