Stuttgart – German one, two, three – watched on by the national coach Otto Becker, the home country’s show jumpers came up trumps on Thursday in the international speed class for the Prize of the Firma XXL-Sicherheit. They left Sweden’s double 2022 World Champion in Herning “trailing” in fourth place. The first qualifying for tomorrow’s STUTTGART GERMAN MASTER, one of the equestrian highlights in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, was won by Philipp Weishaupt who posted a clear round in 61.67 seconds in the saddle on the nine-year-old gelding Krokant. Just 26 hundredths behind in second was Marcus Ehning atop the 17-year-old stallion Funky Fred (61.93). Third was Gerrit Nieberg who stopped the clock in 62.17 seconds on Blues d’Aveline CH, a ten-year-old Wallach bred in Switzerland. Atop the 11-year-old KWPN mare Glamour Girl, von Eckermann, the 2021 team Olympic champion in Tokyo, finished fourth 13 hundredths adrift of Nieberg (62.30).
Only the top 12 riders on aggregate from today’s class and Friday’s second qualifying competition for the Prize of iWEST – scheduled to start at 5.30 pm – will be in the mix for the STUTTGART GERMAN MASTER. At stake late tomorrow evening in the prestigious class is a 100,000-euro purse. The last edition in 2019 was won by the double European champion Martin Fuchs on Tam Tam du Valon. Riding Rahmannshof Upgrade, the Swiss took today fifth place in a time of 62.86 seconds.
