Show jumping stars rack up World Cup points in Madrid

In the Spanish capital’s Longines FEI Gran Premio IFEMA competition – one of 13 qualifiers across the continent counting towards the World Cup Final – it was Germany’s Daniel Deusser who captured the €53,130 top prize on his 10-year-old stallion Tobago Z. The pair came out on top of a tie-breaking jump-off between 10 horse-and-rider combinations, riding clear over the 1.60m-high obstacles in a time of 46.73 seconds.

Madrid is the second victory out of four appearances for Deusser on this year’s Western European league World Cup circuit, after Verona, Italy in October. With 1st place in a qualifier worth 20 points, the former World No.1 rider has quickly racked up 40 in total, good for third place in the standings. Forty points has typically been enough to secure one the 18 places reserved for the continent’s riders in the World Cup Final, whose most recent edition was won by the United States’ Beezie Madden and her stallion Breitling LS in April, 2018.

“Tobago is very careful and very scopey, and he’s not a hot horse so that really helps in the jump-off because he never rushes, even when he’s under pressure – you get the same jump whether you are going fast or slow,” Deusser explained after the duo’s winning round, adding that he intends to take either Calisto Blue or Tobago to Gothenburg: “you ride your best at the Final!”

By contrast, Deusser’s runner-up in Spain, Steve Guerdat, riding 10-year-old mare Ulysse des Forets, has accumulated points in all six legs so far – 2 in Oslo, 12 in Helsinki, 3 in Verona, 15 in Lyon, 9 in Stuttgart, 17 in Madrid – giving him an undisputed lead in the Western European standings with 58. And in 2019 in Sweden, the Swiss athlete will be returning to the site of his triumph in the 2016 World Cup Final with Corbinian, after previously winning the title in 2015 in Las Vegas with Albfuehren’s Paille.

For his part, Belgium’s Pieter Devos, seventh in the jump-off in Madrid with Claire Z, has earned points in five of the six qualifiers to date, including 10 in Spain, for 49 overall and second place in the overall standings. In all, there are 13 opportunities to earn points in Western Europe towards the Final, with the seven best results counting and qualifying stages still to take place in La Coruna, London, Mechelen, Basel, Leipzig, Amsterdam and Bordeaux.