Bost and Pegase. Ph by Manuel Queimadelos/Oxer Sport
The two CSI5* Longines ranking classes presented on Friday at the Madrid Horse Week CSI5* in Madrid, Spain, mirrored each other as a pair of French riders shut out the Germans to claim the top two checks of the day.
France’s Roger Yves Bost prevailed in the €25,000 Prize of Mitsubishi 1.45m CSI5* with Pegase de Murier, a 12-year-old grey Selle Francis stallion (Adelfos x Le Tot de Semilly) that Bost has been paired with for just over one year now. After a September victory at the Longines Global Champions Tour Vienna that marked their first victory together, Pegase had mostly been on rest.
And it seemed that the rest served him well in this single round class, which Bost was able to navigate in 52.62 seconds to relegate Germany’s Christian Ahlmann to 2nd place. Ahlmann, who is coming off a wildly successful week at the Stuttgart German Masters, rode Aragon Z, a 14-year-old Zangersheide geling (Askari x Kolibri) to a 54.20 second round, and Great Britain’s Laura Renwick placed 3rd aboard Heliodor Hybris. See full results here.
Delestre is Best
The day’s feature class saw another French rider grab victory with another German rider hot on his heels; Simone Delestre was winner of the €92,920 Prize of UAX with his top partner Chesall (Casall x Concerto), and Daniel Deusser finished 2nd aboard Toulango.
It was no small test to win this two round jumpoff competition and the course designer may be rethinking tomorrows tracks after an even 24 or 48 competitors jumped clear to move on to the jumpoff. That kind of result always means a race to the finish, and Delestre then galloped on to complete the fastest double clear against nine others who ended the day on zero penalties.
Delestre’s 37.90 seconds on his 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding beat out Deusser’s finishing time of 39.87 seconds. Anna-Julia Kontio and Pacific des Essarts of Finland placed a very close 3rd in 39.89 seconds.
See full results at this link.
Two more days of jumping competition share the stage with dressage and driving at Madrid Horse Week. The Longines FEI World Cup Jumping – Western European League qualifiers continue on Sunday in Madrid with the Longines FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix
presented by MUTUA MADRILEÑA, at 16:30 local time.