It was all smiles for the home crowd at Aachen as Germany’s Daniel Deusser was crowned winner of the RWE Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia aboard his mare Killer Queen VDM.
The course set by Frank Rothenberger asked tough questions for the 42 starters in the first round with just 11 reaching the jump-off to battle it out for the top spot. Early clear rounds put the pressure on the later starters with the leader board changing frequently as the competition remained wide open.
Belgium’s Olivier Philippaerts rode a speedy clear in the time of 45.79 seconds but Daniel produced a thrilling display of skill to shave over a second off Olivier’s time (44.65 seconds) and much to the delight of the patriotic spectators held the lead to take the victory.
Daniel has qualified three horses for the Rolex Grand Prix, which is a leg of the prestigious Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping. It’s held on the final day at Aachen, and Daniel says he will ride Tobago Z in that.
In front of packed grandstands, the first Rolex Grand Prix qualifier was won after a nail-biting jump-off by by Great Britain’s Ben Maher, on Explosion W (Chacco Blue x Baloubet du Rouet), with Spain’s Eduardo Alvarez Aznar second on Rokfeller de Pleville Bois Margot, and Daniel was third on Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z.
The Mercedes-Benz Nations Cup was won by Sweden (Peder Fredricson, Henrik von Eckermann, Angelie Von Essen and Evelina Tovek), just a single penalty ahead of the star-studded German team (Simone Blum, Christian Ahlmann, Daniel Deusser and Marcus Ehning).
Sweden had a double clears from Henrik on Toveks Mary Lou, and a rail each for Angelie (Luikan Q) and Evelina (Dalila de la Pomme), while World Champions Simone and DSP Alice were the only double clears for Germany, Marcus and Christian had a rail each, riding Funky Fred and Clintrexo Z respectively, while Daniel had a single time fault on Calisto Blue.
France was third, led by a double clear by Penelope Leprevost on Vancouver de Lanlore.
