(mps) On Thursday afternoon, Albert Zoer, the team world and European champion had a brilliant start into the 23rd international STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS show, which is held in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle. Riding Lincoln, the 16-year old stallion, the 32-year old Dutchman was in excellent form and won the class “Preis der Bardusch GmbH Textil-Mietdienste”, the opening jumping class for foreign riders, with a clear round in 54.36 seconds.
With this success, Zoer, who had just been the centre of attention with his victory in the World Cup jumping in Verona last weekend, fortified his ambitions to also add more worthy points to his World Cup point account in Stuttgart. Clearly slower but also clear: Denis Lynch, the Irishman, and Upsilon d’Ocquier needed 57.31 seconds to finish second and, thus, displaced Piergiorgio Bucci (Italien) on Contact BZ (0/57.40) to the third position.
Ludger Beerbaum (Riesenbeck), the bronze individual European champion from Mannheim, took up a little more time than Zoer in the opening jumping class for German riders, which was carried out directly afterwards. On Goldfever, his EC horse who is 16 years old meanwhile, the second of the world ranking list managed the eleven obstacles and 13 jumps, with which Ulliano Vezzani, the course designer, had built identical courses for both opening classes, clear in 57.32 seconds. Thus, like Zoer’s, Beerbaum’s prize-money account was credited with 1.200 Euro right at the beginning of the STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS. Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst (Mühlen), riding Paparazzi, the 10-year old gelding, was only 3 tenths of seconds slower than the quadruple Olympic winner, as he passed the light barrier after a clear round and 57.62 seconds. Holger Wulschner (Passin) on Apollo King de Lauzelle (0/57.68) ended up on the third place.
