Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs flew around the Longines Arena at Al Shaqab with his 11-year-old Conner Jei on Friday to claim the 1.55m jump-off class, the feature event on the second day of the Longines Global Champions Tour.
The pair had to settle for a second-place finish in the same class at last week’s CHI Al Shaqab but were in a different class yesterday as they stormed to an easy win. German riders rounded off the podium with Christian Kukuk and his 9-year-old Nice van’t Zorgvliet finishing runner-up, while Christian Ahlmann and the stunning black stallion Solid Gold Z took third place in a lightning-fast jump-off.
Ahead of today’s Grand Prix, Italian designer Uliano Vezzani put the world’s best riders and horses to some tough test. The rails hardly stayed up in the first round as only nine combinations made it to the jump-off out of 44 starts as some of the biggest names missed out.
“It was a great jump-off. My horse Conner Jei was amazing last week as well. He was second place in the same class at CHI Al Shaqab,” Fuchs said. “Today I tried to go as fast as I could knowing that Marlon (Modolo Zanotelli) was still to go behind me and he would have beaten my time again but luckily he had a cheap rail today. I left one out into the double but my horse he’s so careful with such an amazing ability that allows me to do something a little bit crazy like this and I’m glad to be sitting on a horse like that. Tomorrow I’m going to be riding Leone Jei, my championship horse, he is also in very good shape so I’m going to try to produce three more clear rounds tomorrow,” the Swiss added.
In the jump-off, Frenchman Simon Delestre set the pace on Dexter Fontenis Z as the duo kept all the fences up in 37.38 seconds piling pressure on the rest of the field. But Christian Kukuk was equally at the top of his game as the German rider guided Nice van’t Zorgvliet to a clear round and a second and a half second better than Delestre.
The in-form pair of Fuchs and Conner Jei went flat out from the start as the pair galloped around the course with brilliant speed to stop the clock a second faster than Kukuk to snatch the lead. Christian Ahlmann and stallion Solid Gold Z kept all the fences up but their time of 36.75 seconds could only put them in third place.
Earlier, the CSI5* 1.50m class was won by Henrik von Eckermann and his 11-year-old bay Glamour Girl. The riders had to compete against the clock with Sweden’s Eckermann and Glamour Girl putting in an extremely fast and clear round in 58.93 seconds.
Frenchman’s Kevin Staut rode the fifteen-year-old Tolede de Mescam Harcour to second place in 59.24 seconds. Hans-Dieter Dreher and Vestmalle des Cotis secured third place with a time of 59.96 seconds.
The second round of the GCL competition takes place today at 2:40pm, with new team Stockholm Hearts leading the race to pick up this season’s first event. The team powered by H&M We Love Horses secured pole position in Thursday’s first round.
The powerful pairing of Malin Baryard-Johnsson and H&M Indiana alongside Olivier Philippaerts and H&M Legend of Love will be looking for another double clear round in a lightning-fast time.
The marquee event – the LGCT Grand Prix of Doha kicks off at 6p today, with riders vying for the win as well as the first golden ticket to the season-ending LGCT Super Grand Prix at the GC Prague Playoffs.