Charlotte & Valegro Meet Expectations To Win World Cup Grand Prix, Edward & Undercover 2nd, Steffen & Legolas 3rd
10 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Charlotte & Valegro Meet Expectations To Win World Cup Grand Prix, Edward & Undercover 2nd, Steffen & Legolas 3rd
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
LAS VEGAS, April 16, 2015–Charlotte Dujardin fulfilled all the expectations of being the reigning Reem Acra FEI World Cup champion and winner of enough championship gold medals to fill Fort Knox by capturing the Grand Prix easily despite being nervous that the horse was “feeling a little bit under.”
Charlotte and the 13-year-old KWPN gelding produced a performance that was awarde 85.414 per cent–two percentage points lower than her world record of 87.460 per cent–but well ahead of Edward Gal and Glock’s Undercover on 79.057 per cent.
Steffen Peters, a hometown favorite on Legolas, claimed the third place with 76.843 per cent that he admitted was “a big surprise” to himself to finish as high as he did in the lineup of 18 pairs of horses and riders in this 30th staging of the annual individual championship.
The 29-year-old British Olympic, World Games and European Championship gold medalist as well as winner of this title last year and Valegro had a couple of minor bobbles in piaffe to passage transitions but the performance was otherwise so clean and powerful that cheering at the end made it clear the crowd of 7,344 fans felt rewarded.
Most of the horses became tense entering through a darkened tunnel at the Thomas and Mack Center that is big enough to fit in only the competition arena over the University of Nevada at Las Vegas basketball court with fans barely a couple of feet (0.7m) away at some places.
Verdades ridden by Laura Graves of Geneva, Florida was one of those in the pair’s first ever indoor event. He was so nervous he could be seen to be shaking. The score of 74.314 per cent for fifth place with Robert Dover, the U.S. Chef d’Equipe and Debbie McDonald, her coach “were both unbelievably proud of Laura.”
“This was her first major indoor competition…” and Laura interjected, “my only indoor competition.”
Very rarely do you see someone starting out in this kind of competition with a 74-plus score. That just speaks to the gifst odf this horse and rider.
“We will see an even more brave horse in two days and Laura now knows exactly what to expect.”
“I’m just ecstatic” Debbie said.
With one rider under her belt, she said afterward, “we will push the envelope” in Saturday’s Freestyle.
Laura and Verdades placed fifth individually with a Freestyle score of 82.036 per cent at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy last summer.
Steffen Peters of San Diego, California, winner of the World Cup title in 2009 when it was last held in Las Vegas, had spent weeks preparing Legolas for the electric atmosphere in a drastic change in training after a disappointing showing in Wellington, Florida earlier this year.
Walking the 13-year-old Westfalen gelding in his farm’s indoor arena with a five-minute recording of loud music and cheering crowd playing on a new sound system ahead of this competition turned out to have been “perfect planning” that paid off.
Charlotte said that because she looks at all shows as another competition she felt no pressure coming to Las Vegas to defend the World Cup title.
“Every competition I do wth Valegro is massive excitement,” she said, and “Las Vegas is everything I thought it would be.”
Travel from their base in England to Las Vegas was 24 hours followed by two days of quarantine was an issue.
“The last few days he’s been feeling a little bit under, not quite hmself. Yesterday I was feeling a bit worried. But I had a great ride. I think the cooler weather helped. The crowd was great.”
The Grand Prix Freestyle that will determine the World Cup title will be held Saturday.
A new World Cup was specially designed by Reem Acra, sponsor of the Final and the Western European League, for this 30th annversary of the annual individual championship.
Results:
| (K) | (E) | (H) | (C) | (M) | (B) | (F) | Total | ||||||||
| 1. | 0108 | Valegro | Dujardin,Charlotte | GBR |  | 7.000,00 EUR | 83.700 % | 87.600 % | 85.900 % | 83.600 % | 87.900 % | 82.100 % | 87.100 % | 85.414 % | |
| bay / 13y. / G / KWPN / Negro / Gerschwin / 102UB51 / Mr C Hester, Mrs R Luard, Mrs A Bar | (1.) | (1.) | (1.) | (1.) | (1.) | (1.) | (1.) | ||||||||
| 2. | 0109 | Glock’s Undercover N.O.P. | Gal,Edward | NED |  | 5.500,00 EUR | 79.000 % | 81.900 % | 79.500 % | 79.500 % | 79.800 % | 77.700 % | 76.000 % | 79.057 % | |
| black / 14y. / G / KWPN / Ferro / Donnerhall / 103MH20 / Ghpc Holding Bv | (2.) | (2.) | (2.) | (2.) | (2.) | (2.) | (5.) | ||||||||
| 3. | 0118 | Legolas | Peters,Steffen | USA |  | 4.250,00 EUR | 76.000 % | 78.300 % | 76.200 % | 74.800 % | 77.900 % | 75.400 % | 79.300 % | 76.843 % | |
| bay / 13y. / G / WESTF / Laomedon / Florestan II / 103KZ88 / Four Winds Farm Llc | (3.) | (3.) | (4.) | (3.) | (3.) | (3.) | (2.) | ||||||||
| 4. | 0106 | Unee BB | von Bredow-Werndl,Jessica | GER |  | 3.250,00 EUR | 72.900 % | 77.000 % | 76.900 % | 73.900 % | 73.400 % | 73.700 % | 76.100 % | 74.843 % | |
| bay / 14y. / S / KWPN / Gribaldi / Dageraad / 102YN67 / Bürchler-Keller Beatrice | (6.) | (4.) | (3.) | (7.) | (7.) | (6.) | (4.) | ||||||||
| 5. | 0117 | Verdades | Graves,Laura | USA | | 2.000,00 EUR | 74.500 % | 76.800 % | 70.000 % | 74.300 % | 74.600 % | 72.500 % | 77.300 % | 74.286 % | |
| bay / 13y. / G / KWPN / Florett As / Goya / 103CK84 / Laura Graves | (4.) | (5.) | (10.) | (5.) | (4.) | (9.) | (3.) | ||||||||
| 6. | 0114 | Painted Black | Barbançon Mestre,Morgan | ESP |  | 1.500,00 EUR | 73.300 % | 74.500 % | 73.100 % | 74.100 % | 73.500 % | 73.900 % | 74.100 % | 73.786 % | |
| black / 18y. / S / KWPN / Gribaldi / Ferro / NED06402 / Morgan Barbancon Mestre | (5.) | (7.) | (7.) | (6.) | (6.) | (5.) | (7.) | ||||||||
| 7. | 0110 | Glock’s Flirt | Minderhoud,Hans Peter | NED | | 1.000,00 EUR | 72.400 % | 74.800 % | 72.300 % | 74.400 % | 74.100 % | 73.200 % | 74.400 % | 73.657 % | |
| chest / 14y. / S / CH / Florestan / Gauguin de Lully / 103DD24 / Ing. Gaston Glock | (8.) | (6.) | (8.) | (4.) | (5.) | (7.) | (6.) | ||||||||
| 8. | 0107 | El Santo NRW | Werth,Isabell | GER | | 500,00 EUR | 72.500 % | 74.100 % | 74.000 % | 70.400 % | 72.100 % | 74.000 % | 72.800 % | 72.843 % | |
| bay / 14y. / G / RHLD / Ehrentusch / Rythmus / GER44504 / Madeleine Winter-Schulze + Isabell | (7.) | (8.) | (6.) | (10.) | (9.) | (4.) | (9.) | ||||||||
| Weitere, nicht platzierte Teilnehmer | (K) | (E) | (H) | (C) | (M) | (B) | (F) | Total | |||||||
| 9. | 0115 | Di Lapponia T | Friberg,Paulinda | SWE |  | 71.400 % | 73.300 % | 75.700 % | 72.500 % | 72.400 % | 71.600 % | 71.900 % | 72.686 % | ||
| black / 14y. / M / HANN / Donnerhall / Argument / 104AU16 / Paulinda Friberg | (9.) | (9.) | (5.) | (8.) | (8.) | (10.) | (13.) | ||||||||
| 10. | 0112 | Mister X | Merkulova,Inessa | RUS |  | 71.000 % | 69.800 % | 70.600 % | 71.300 % | 71.600 % | 73.100 % | 72.000 % | 71.343 % | ||
| bay / 11y. / G / TRAK / Egeus / 102YZ81 / Merkulova, Inessa | (11.) | (14.) | (9.) | (9.) | (12.) | (8.) | (11.) | ||||||||
| 11. | 0105 | Qui Vincit Dynamis | Lütkemeier,Fabienne | GER | | 70.400 % | 71.700 % | 69.900 % | 69.700 % | 71.800 % | 69.000 % | 73.500 % | 70.857 % | ||
| chest / 16y. / G / OLDBG / Quattro B / Calypso II / GER45767 / Capellmann-Lütkemeier Gina | (12.) | (11.) | (12.) | (11.) | (10.) | (13.) | (8.) | ||||||||
| 12. | 0101 | My Lady | Gundersen,Mikala Münter | DEN |  | 71.200 % | 71.200 % | 69.800 % | 67.300 % | 71.600 % | 69.900 % | 71.900 % | 70.414 % | ||
| bay / 15y. / M / DWB / Michellino / 103KN32 / Janne H. Rumbough & Mikala Münter G | (10.) | (12.) | (13.) | (15.) | (12.) | (11.) | (13.) | ||||||||
| 13. | 0104 | Axis TSF | Stegars,Terhi | FIN |  | 68.000 % | 72.500 % | 69.900 % | 69.100 % | 70.200 % | 68.500 % | 70.900 % | 69.871 % | ||
| black / 16y. / S / TRAK / Sixtus / Angard / GER44244 / Stegars Terhi + Kayser Tanja | (15.) | (10.) | (12.) | (12.) | (13.) | (14.) | (14.) | ||||||||
| 14. | 0102 | Mariett | Petersen,Lars | DEN | | 68.700 % | 69.900 % | 68.900 % | 67.500 % | 68.400 % | 69.200 % | 72.700 % | 69.329 % | ||
| bay / 17y. / M / DWB / Come Back II / Sidney / DEN02600 / Marcia Pepper/Lars Petersen | (14.) | (13.) | (15.) | (13.) | (17.) | (12.) | (10.) | ||||||||
| 15. | 0116 | Fleetwood | Hamilton,Malin | SWE | | 66.900 % | 69.200 % | 68.300 % | 67.300 % | 69.000 % | 67.700 % | 68.500 % | 68.129 % | ||
| bay / 16y. / G / WESTF / Florestan I / Bormio XX / SWE40906 / Malin Hamilton | (16.) | (16.) | (16.) | (15.) | (14.) | (15.) | (15.) | ||||||||
| 16. | 0103 | Jojo Az | Kirk Thinggaard,Agnete | DEN | | 69.100 % | 68.400 % | 69.400 % | 67.100 % | 68.700 % | 66.600 % | 66.600 % | 67.986 % | ||
| bay / 12y. / G / Ginus / Justboy / 103KA01 / Julianelyst Aps | (13.) | (17.) | (14.) | (16.) | (15.) | (17.) | (18.) | ||||||||
| 17. | 0111 | Kartsevo Upperville | Dorofeeva,Tatiana | RUS | | 66.600 % | 66.700 % | 67.700 % | 65.800 % | 68.600 % | 66.000 % | 67.800 % | 67.029 % | ||
| 14y. / S / KWPN / Cabochon / Creool / 102ZV82 / Sonina Varvara & Bronnikova Nataliy | (17.) | (18.) | (18.) | (17.) | (16.) | (18.) | (16.) | ||||||||
| 18. | 0113 | Romeo-Star | Sidneva,Elena | RUS | | 64.700 % | 69.300 % | 68.100 % | 65.300 % | 66.900 % | 67.400 % | 67.400 % | 67.014 % | ||
| bay / 14y. / S / HANN / Romantic Star / Mister A / RUS40441 / Mrs. Ludmila Dmitrieva | (18.) | (15.) | (17.) | (18.) | (18.) | (16.) | (17.) | ||||||||
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