BADMINTON, Marbach... back-to-back fixtures in the eventing calendar. Both won by Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam FBW.
Both wins have special significance; the German pair’s win at Badminton nine years ago clinched Jung’s Rolex Grand Slam title and, as it happened, was the prelude to another Olympic gold medal three months later in Rio de Janeiro.
Marbach? Well, their three-time CIC3* wins there took place on the site of the Marbach, one of Germany’s state studs, where the Limerick export Stan The Man was based which provides an Irish link to the greatest event horse in modern eventing history.
It’s impossible to fairly compare the eventing greats of the past – those horses that had roads and tracks and steeplechase elements to complete before the actual cross-country, often totalling 1.5 hours on day two compared to short-format horses for courses.
Sam was a five-year-old when eventing’s short format was introduced in 2005. He was bred by the late Günter Seiter, who lived half an hour away from the Jung family’s base in Horb-Altheim on the eastern edge of Germany’s scenic Black Forest.
His FBW suffix denotes the Baden-Württemberg studbook (Pferdezuchtverband Baden-Württemberg) that Sam was registered with.
The Dunraven Arms Hotel, owned by the Murphy family, has hosted German visitors over for a day’s hunting with Limerick packs for decades. After one particular trip by some Marbach connections and with the help of Dermot Forde, Stan The Man was bought from the late John (Jack) Shorten.
Pedigree
Irish thoroughbred stallions sold to the continent as refining influences were not unusual. Sacramento Song and Katell (damsire of Beezie Madden’s Authentic) are two; Ann Lambert’s Jack The Robin, now based in Germany, is another.
Stan The Man left his mark in Irish Sport Horse breeding as the sire of Leslie Law’s Olympic pair: Shear L’Eau and Shear H2O, bred by the late Edward Walsh in Kilrush.
Shear H20 threw down a marker for the success of his sire’s progeny at Badminton with a second place in 2000, the same year as he and Law were on the British silver medal team at the Sydney Olympics. A team gold medal followed the next year at the world championships at Pau and then the baton passed to his younger full-brother: Shear L’Eau.
His career highlights included an individual gold medal after an eventful Athens Olympics where Germany’s Bettina Hoy lost out, plus two team gold medals at European championship level (2003, 2005).
Their dam Starry Night II was by Carnival Night, a stallion that appears in other Olympic Irish-breds; Duneight Carnival, Carling King and Paulank Brockagh too. And there the story may have ended; a Carnival Night mare producing two famous traditionally-bred sons by a relatively under-used thoroughbred stallion sold to Germany.
Until Günter Seiter crossed his Heraldik mare Halla with Marbach’s new stallion. Like Carnival Night, the Czech thoroughbred Heraldik has Olympic appearances littered amongst his progeny: Paulank Brockagh’s rider Sam Griffiths competed Happy Times at London and Ingrid Klimke was at the previous Olympics in Hong Kong with FRH Butts Abraxxas.
Heraldik, Master Imp and Cavalier Royale, the leading eventing sires of that era, regularly traded places in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH), British Eventing and United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) rankings.
Halla’s damline is solid Hanoverian. Gotthard is in there, similar to finding King of Diamonds or Clover Hill in an Irish bloodline but nothing ‘noteworthy’ in her family.
And then, La Biosthetique Sam came along to bring Stan The Man back into the news.
All for luck
It was interesting to hear Michael Jung mention the importance of luck after his latest Kentucky CCI5*-L win with fischerChipmunk. Much of the secret of his success is correct training, not the abstract notion of luck. Yet there’s plenty of elements of luck in his and Sam’s story.
Günter Seiter had bred just a handful of foals by 2000, when Sam was foaled. Perhaps the greatest stroke of luck of all was the fact that Sam, as a two-year-old colt, was turned down at the Baden-Württemberg stallion inspections.
“They said he was klein and pummelig (small and stocky),” said Michael’s father Joachim.
“A funny jump” was another observation and, while Sam did reach 168cm (16.2 in decimal currency) in height, his crossed forelegs over a fence became his signature tune. Not that it concerned his rider who said it brought the horse luck!
Jung and his brother Philip grew up playing cowboys and Indians on their ponies Sally and Moritz to competitions, just like their father Joachim had.
Philip, who later moved to Canada to work for La Biosthetique, an exclusive skincare, hair and cosmetics company, (hence the sponsorship connection with Sam), competed mainly in dressage while Michael made his mark in eventing.
Michael won his first individual medal – gold, naturally – at the 2003 European young riders’ championships in Bialy Bor with the Holsteiner gelding Marco 522. Then he teamed up with the since-gelded Sam, sold at the Baden Würrtemberg auction for €8,000 to Sabine Kreuter as Sam’s breeder had recommended Michael as a good match for the young horse.
46th place now sounds an outlandish result for the pair but that was their place in the Fontainebleau CIC* in June 2006 (they won the same class the following year). Back over the French border that autumn to Le Lion d’Angers where Sam won a silver medal in the six-year-old final at the WBFSH young horse championships, a result Sam would repeat in the seven-year-old final.
Two silver medals so far, more to follow.
Substantial price required
By 2010, Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam were world champions. Their career skyrocketed after fourth place and then a win in the 2008 and 2009 World Cup finals in Deauville and Strezgom.
Their first five-star (then four-star) win was ticked off at Lühmuhlen earlier in the summer of 2009 and, a month after that World Cup win in Poland, they won their first European championships medal at senior level – individual bronze – in Fontainebleau.
Sam became hot property in the eventing world in 2010. That year, he and Michi won again at Marbach en route to the Alltech FEI world championships in Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park.
There, they were members of the fifth-placed German team and shone in the individual final, taking gold ahead of William Fox-Pitt (GBR) on Cool Mountain and Andrew Nicholson (NZL) on Nereo.
Five-star horses of his calibre – (quirks and all – as a young horse, Sam jumped out of a horse lorry window) – are rare and a proverbial queue formed when Sabine Kreuter decided to sell her 60% share in the world champion.
Seven-figure sums were mentioned; a bunch of British riders such as Mary King, Zara Phillips and Oliver Townend were all rumoured to be his possible next rider and then, the German Olympic Equestrian Federation had the funding and presence of mind to step in and secure Sam with a 47% majority share.
The Jung family retained their initial 40% stake and their longtime supporter Eric Single acquired 13%. Sam stayed in Germany and the German national colours browband he wore became priceless branding.
Michael Jung and Le Biosthetique-Sam FBW with the Mitsubishi Motors Trophy at the 2016 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials \ Kit Houghton/Mitsubishi Motors
Olympic gold
That investment was to pay golden dividends for Germany, starting with team and individual gold medals for the pair on home ground in Lühmuhlen at the 2011 European championships.
Another win at lucky Marbach kicked off 2012 when the Black Forest pair were an automatic shoo-in for the Olympics. Two teammates from the 2011 championships – Sandra Auffarth (Opgun Louvo) and Ingrid Klimke (FRH Butts Abraxxas) – were also amongst the German team selections.
Germany swept to glory and Sam delivered the perfect birthday present to Michael with a matching gold medal in the individual final.
After that stellar year and a heap of awards, a relatively quiet two years followed for Sam. He placed second on his Badminton debut in 2013 to Clifton Promise, ridden by Josh Paget (NZL). His stable companion fischerRocana FST filled his place at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy where she and Jung won individual silver and team gold.
Another of Jung’s team – the Selle Français fischerTakinou – won individual gold for Michael at the 2015 European championships.
Sam was then back on the scene and won his second five-star. This was at Burghley, ahead of the Irish-bred Ringwood Sky Boy and Tim Price (NZL). In doing so, Sam’s win set the stage for a possible Rolex Grand Slam for his rider.
To do so, a double-handed Jung needed to win Kentucky – fischer Rocana obliged, Sam placed third – and then to claim the €350,000 bonus and repeat Pippa Funnell’s feat – Michael had to win Badminton.
And nine years ago, this weekend, that’s exactly what he and 16-year-old La Biosthetique Sam did.
Gold encore
You could automatically think that the reigning Olympic champion was first choice, however, the younger fischerTakinou was set to go. That was until fate and injury – that great leveller of event horses – interceded and, instead, the veteran Sam was on the flight to Rio de Janeiro.
As in London, the pair did not get off to a flying start. Dressage was never Sam’s forté but Jung’s training produced accurate tests. There were no grandstand crowds at the Rio Olympics during dressage and eventing, but you could still hear the collective gasp when Sam’s blip during the counter canter saw a string of 4.0 marks appear on the scoreboard.
The pair dug deep though and it was Michael who stepped up on top of the podium for a second individual Olympic gold medal for the German and Sam (whirling around in the background during the presentation ceremonies, never his favourite pastime).
Team silver too, which saw part of the German delegation break into a victory dance at the ringside.
La Biosthetique Sam recorded two more top-10 finishes in a handful of post-Rio appearances; second the following year to friendly rival Nereo at Badminton and then 10th in 2018.
That Badminton appearance proved to be his final one, with Michael confirming the horse’s retirement later in the year.
How does he compare to, say, Ballaghmor Class? Oliver Townend’s horse edges ahead on five-star wins (four, compared to Sam’s three). However, in the medal category, there simply is only one La Biosthetique Sam.
“YOU hold Sam?” Now that was some request but Michael Jung was away to tend to a minor commotion – a burst water drinker meant a stable reshuffle and choc-a-bloc stable aisle – and there I was left, holding the reins of the most brilliant horse in eventing history.
It was a memorable visit to the Jung yard in November 2013 for The Irish Field Christmas feature. Typical Black Forest hospitality, the Jungs were unfailingly polite and hospitable, even if by then media requests were no longer a novelty.
Michael and Joachim Jung at home with La Biosthetique Sam FBW in 2013 \ Susan Finnerty
Find out the secret of Michael Jung’s success? Forget it, he’s just a natural-born genius with a superb back-up team in his parents Joachim and Brigitte, plus the good fortune to have a continual chain of five-star horses. Plus, that thing called luck.
Two pictures caught my eye in a rosette and trophy-festooned lounge overlooking the indoor arena; a double of Reiterjournal front covers, six years apart from 1994 and 2000, of Joachim and Michael clearing cross-country fences and then a beautiful painting of Stan The Man, gifted to the family by Günter Seiter.
Back to the fire-breathing Sam, who politely yawned at this delay to his photoshoot. “He comes out of his stable like an old riding school horse, but as soon as the rider takes over, he lights up,” said Brigitte as she and Claudia, Sam’s groom, got him ready for his close-up.
Sponsor’s rug donned, hooves oiled, groom at the ready with an umbrella to get those ears up, Michael and Joachim in position... Sam just yawned. Until he heard the first click of the camera and lit up with a ‘look of eagles’ glare that went into overdrive when another horse, being led in from the paddock, had the temerity to cross the Olympic champion’s airspace.
Pictures over and, as Sam was led back to his stable, a van pulled up. Within 20 minutes, two plumbers had arrived to fix the broken water drinker.
And that attention to detail is yet another part of the Jung success.