BELGIUM’s Gregory Wathelet won the first Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping of the year when landing victory in the Aachen Grand Prix with Coree last Sunday at the famous German venue.

In front of a packed crowd of 40,000 people, the dramatic jump-off, which saw four of the world’s best riders, two men and two women, fight it out for the top prize of €330,000, Wathelet guided the 11-year-old Westfalen mare by Cornet Obolensky to the fastest clear round.

In tough conditions, 40 combinations had earlier qualified for the huge class. Frank Rothenberger designed a big track with 16 jumping efforts which asked many questions throughout. One of the four Grand Slam majors of show jumping, every rider on that list had come to Aachen for the same thing – victory.

Unfortunately, Brazil’s Pedro Veniss and the brilliant stallion Quabri L’Isle, winners of the Grand Slam in Geneva last December, did not start in the competition, but the field wasn’t short of superstars and after the first round a total of six riders were home on a clean sheet.

With 18 invited back to take on round two, all the four faulters bar one returned to take on the altered course. Ireland’s Cian O’Connor was one of the riders who finished with one fence down in the first round with the extravagant stallion Good Luck (Canturo x Furioso II). The pair returned to jump an outstanding clear second time out to finish in 10th place and pick up €10,000.

While a number of the combinations carrying faults produced a clear, only the riders on zero faults continued to the final round, making for a four-horse jump-off, a considerable amount for this particular class.

First to go in the jump-off was Dutchman Marc Houtzager with Sterrehof’s Calimero and he set the standard when posting a clear round in a time of 53.66 seconds. Next in, Portugal’s Luciana Diniz quickly beat Houtzager’s time when she raced through the beams in 47.40 seconds with Fit For Fun (For Pleasure x Fabriano).

Once again, Diniz’s time didn’t last long as Wathelet turned up the pressure and took another second of the rime, finishing on 46.60.

The cheering crowd once again quietened as the last rider to go, America’s Laura Kraut, entered the arena. With Zeremonie, Kraut cruelly knocked the last fence to drop her down to fourth place.

Speaking about his first Rolex Grand Prix win at CHIO Aachen, Wathelet remarked: “Rolex have the best shows to form the Rolex Grand Slam with Aachen, Calgary, Geneva and Den Bosch and every rider wants to win. For me it is a dream come to true to win the Rolex Grand Prix at Aachen and have my name on the wall and Calgary would be the same, so I hope to get a good result there also.” All eyes will now be looking ahead to the next equestrian major at the CSIO Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ in September, where Wathelet will be attempting to continue his reign as the live contender of the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping.

O’Connor double

Following a win on the opening day, Cian O’Connor once again continued his superb run of form to score his second win in 48 hours when landing the Prize of Sparkasse Speed Derby.

Riding the Philippe Membrez-owned stallion Copain du Perchet CH (Conteur I x Ragazzo), who was second in the derby at Falsterbo the week before, he crossed the line clear in 68.42 seconds to push Germany’s Philip Rüping and Chalypsa into second in 68.70, while Chile’s Samuel Parot finished third with Quick du Pottier in 70.36.

O’Connor said after his latest win: “Aachen have always kept this unique speed class with the lake and the crowd really enjoy it. Copain took it all in his stride literally and ate up the ground in this great arena today.”

BREEDING INSIGHTS

COREE

Gender: Mare

Age: 11

Sire: Cornet Obolensky

Dam sire: Liberty Life

Breeder: Sabine, Susanne and Heinrich Kessler

The 11-year-old German-bred mare is sired by the prolific producer Cornet Obolensky and out of the mare Herz Dame, who has not produced any other top performance horses. With Wathelet since she was eight years old, Judith Golkel bought the mare in 2015 to secure the future ride for the Belgian.

There are nine offspring from Coree on the ground, all born by embryo transfer and bred by Har du Hus, former owners of the mare. The oldest of her progeny are two seven-year-olds and they already have a promising performance record.