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Jumper – Show JumpingTapner and Fox-Pitt Poised to Pounce on HSBC FEI Classics at Burghley31 August 2010 – Paul Tapner (AUS) and William Fox-Pitt (GBR) are the riders with most to gain from a big result at this weekend’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR, September 2-5). It is the fourth leg of the 2010 HSBC FEI Classics, which carries a prize-pot of US$333,000 to be shared by the five most successful riders across five CCI4* events. The current standings leader, Andreas Dibowski (GER), who has a healthy 7-point lead over this year’s Badminton and Lexington winners, is an absentee from Burghley, and Tapner and Fox-Pitt are poised to pounce. Tapner, who looks set to make his debut on the Australian squad at the forthcoming Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, has two horses with useful CCI4* form: Kilfinnie, 15th last year, and Stormhill Michael, 10th at Badminton. Michael Jung Is New HSBC FEI World Cup Champion as Germans Dominate Schenefeld
 The HSBC FEI World Cup Eventing Champion for 2010 Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam. (Photo: Ute Goedecke) 29 August 2010 – Michael Jung was crowned the HSBC FEI World Cup Eventing Champion for 2010 at the last event of the season, Schenefeld (GER), where he emphasised his domination of the series by finishing second, third and fourth behind the winner, Julia Mestern (GER) on FRH Schorsch. After 12 events in 10 countries and three continents, Jung, who is being hailed as one of the world’s most exciting young riders, emerged supreme as the only rider to have won two events, at Marbach (GER) and Strzegom (POL). His reaction on learning that he has won US$50,000 of HSBC prize-money was: “This is wonderful for me because as a professional rider I am always thinking about earning money. This will now allow me to relax and prepare my top horse, Sam, for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky next month. Marcus Ehning, King of Rio
 Photo: Marcus Ehning, by Cymon Taylor. There was a lot riding on the last day of the GCT: the Million Euro Bonus, the Grand Prix of Brazil and the Leading Rider Award, which itself was worth over 25’000 Euro to the winner. Uliano Vezanni was in charge of building the course to sort them out and the first round produced eleven clear rounds but to the amazement of many, Marco Kutscher, leader of the GCT rankings, was not among them when he had two down with Catoki. And Jos Lansink’s chance of snatching the winner’s part of the Bonus disappeared when Spender S had two fences down. But Marcus Ehning was in the eighteen second round contestants and so was Edwina Alexander, lying in fourth but ready to capitalise on anyone else’s misfortunes. Mares and Marcus Rule in Rio
 Marcus Ehning. All photos by Lulu Kyriacou Tonight’s two part class in Rio was a glowing tribute to mares as they filled the top four places in a fourteen horse jump off. The Prix Bradesco was a winning round class so the best 20% went through to the second round against the clock where all of them started on zero. There was another 125’000 in total prize money and this class was open to the national riders as well as the GCT ones so sixty horses were originally in the field. The second phase later that evening was diminished by one when Ellen Whitaker was taken ill and could not jump off. Phillip Weishaupt started the ball rolling on dark bay Souvenir 29 and the pair set an excellent standard of 40.95. It did not like he had left much room for maneuver either. Billy Twomey on another mare Tinka’s Serenade was first to get past the German combination by just two tenths of a second, and then Roger Yves Bost, next in on his young mare Nifrane de Kreisker, removed a stride coming to the last and clipped a second off the Irishman’s time. This was looking unbeatable but you can never say never when the last to jump is Marcus Ehning. Riding his Sandro Boy sired Sabrina, a daring turn to the second last had the desired effect and his time of 39.63 was enough to give him another win on a mare who has barely been unplaced this season. Riders Prepare for Final HSBC Countdown at Schenefeld26 August 2010 – The HSBC FEI World Cup Eventing for 2010 climaxes at Schenefeld in Germany this weekend (August 27-29) as riders bid to boost their rankings in this valuable US$180,000 series. The world-beating German squad will be at Schenefeld in their entirety, as it is a compulsory selection trial before they head to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky to defend their Eventing team gold medal won at the 2006 Games in Aachen. Michael Jung (GER), who heads the HSBC FEI World Cup leaderboard with two victories, at Marbach (GER) and Strzegom (POL), is a definite starter, as are compatriots Andreas Dibowski, Kai Rüder and Kai-Steffen Meier, all of whom are in the current top 10 of the rankings, plus Ingrid Klimke, Frank Ostholt, Dirk Schrade, Simone Deitermann and Anna Warnecke. Six other nations are represented – Belarus, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Spain and Sweden – and riders such as Viachaslau Poita (BLR) and Aliaksandr Faminou (BLR), first and third at Minsk (BLR), have a good chance of enhancing their status in the HSBC rankings. |
