Wilm Vermeir and Iq van het Steentje. ph: Longines St. Moritz
A day after winning the Piz Bernina Prize at the Longines St. Moritz competition, Belgium’s Will Vermeir returned to the podium on Sunday, August 20 after piloting the 9-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding Iq van het Steentje (Toulon x Kannan) to a 1st place finish in the Longines St. Moritz Grand Prix CSI5*.
The beautiful backdrop of St. Moritz, Switzerland set the stage for the final day of competition. 35 horse and rider combinations took to the 13-obstacle-track designed by Switzerland’s Balsiger Guido. The level of difficulty on the 1.60m course resulted in seven retirees and all but nine faulted rounds.
Of the nine combinations in the jump off, Vermeir secured a near two second lead over the competition to take home the lump sum of the 250.000 CHF purse. In 2nd place, Great Britain’s Robert Whitaker and the 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding Catwalk IV (Colman x Corleone) finished on zero faults with a final time of 38.20s. On day three of the St. Moritz competition, Whitaker piloted Catwalk to a 2nd place finish in the Maxinos Championat on Friday, August 18.
Switzerland’s Alain Jufer and the nine-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding Rahmannshof Tic Tac (Contact van de Heffinck x Fuego du Prelet) finished in 3rd place with zero faults and a time of 38.62s.
For the full results, visit this link.