ph. Stefano Grasso/LGCT
Today, Portugal’s Luciana Diniz won the Longines Grand Prix at CSI Basel for a second time in her career. Riding Fit for Fun, Diniz left Brazil’s Marlon Modolo Zanotelli on Extra van Essene in second and World No.1 Scott Brash on Hello Sanctos in third place after an incredible five horse jump off.
Luciana jumped 68 hundredths of a second faster than fellow Brazilian-born rider Marlon Modolo Zanotelli in the jump off. With her Hanoverian mare Fit for Fun jumped fast and clear, with a time that was over a second faster than World No.1 Scott Brash and his Rolex IJRC Top Ten winning mount Hello Sanctos. Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet and Conrad de Hus earned by far the fastest time in the jump-off, but had the last fence down, to settle for fourth place. Fifth went to Italy’s Piergiorgio Bucci on Casallo Z, who acquired twelve faults in the jump off.
This was not the first win for Diniz this weekend in Swizterland. Riding the ever-popular 16 year old stallion Winningmood, Diniz won the 1.50 Prize of the Hotel Les Trois Rois yesterday. It was a fierce battle against the clock with no less than 22 riders of the 52 riders on the start list in the jump off. But no one was capable of beating Diniz, who set an early target time at 32.27 seconds. Italy’s Piergiorgio Bucci came the closest with Catwalk, earning a time of 32.50 seconds. Ukraine’s Katharina Offel finished third aboard her grey gelding Charlie with a time of 32.53 seconds.