LONDON, Dec. 15–Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas came within less than one-half percentage point of their world record to claim the Grand Prix at Olympia International Horse Show World Cup qualifier Tuesday night.
The black stallion being ridden by Edward Gal of The Netherlands in the horse’s last competition as a nine-year-old posted a score of 83.66 per cent, just 0.43 per cent below their world record of 84.09 per cent at the European Championships at Windsor, just 20 miles (32km) from Tuesday night’s event, in August.
Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival also scored above 80 per cent, posting a mark of 81.277 per cent with one judge placing the Dutch pair in first place ahead of Totilas and Edward.
Great Britain’s Carl Hester on Liebling II, his European Championship team silver medal mount, was third on 72.213 per cent with team mate Laura Bechtolsheimer on Andretti H, in fourth place on 70.766 per cent.
Edward Gal who won and team and individual European Championships gold medals and is ranked No. 1 in the world with Totilas, said:
“He is still so young but he never lets me down. The audience was a little excited – which is good – but also difficult, and he was a little bit tense at the start, but after the walk he began to feel really good.”
Carl Hester and Liebling had the unenviable task of following Totilas into the arena.
However, the pair delighted the home crowd to produce their best test to date to place third.
“I thought Christmas was ruined when I saw the draw – how do you follow that?” Carl asked. “But my aim was to produce a test without mistakes and that was his first really clean test and I was delighted with the feeling he gave me.”
All 13 starters go into Wednesday night’s FEI World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle to music, sponsored by Rowan Management Ltd and supported by Horse & Hound.
Totilas and Edward Gal hold the world record score for the freestyle that they created at the Europeans.
Grand Prix results
| 1. | Moorlands Totilas | Edward Gal | NED |  | 393 | 387 | 391 | 396 | 399 | 1966 | ||
| 83.617% | 82.340% | 83.191% | 84.255% | 84.894% | 83.660% | |||||||
| 2. | Parzival | Adelinde Cornelissen | NED | | 396 | 377 | 390 | 370 | 377 | 1910 | ||
| 84.255% | 80.213% | 82.979% | 78.723% | 80.213% | 81.277% | |||||||
| 3. | Liebling II | Carl Hester | GBR |  | 334 | 339 | 340 | 340 | 344 | 1697 | ||
| 71.064% | 72.128% | 72.340% | 72.340% | 73.191% | 72.213% | |||||||
| 4. | Andretti H | Laura Bechtolsheimer | GBR | | 319 | 329 | 333 | 343 | 339 | 1663 | ||
| 67.872% | 70.000% | 70.851% | 72.979% | 72.128% | 70.766% | |||||||
| 5. | Cadillac | Catherine Haddad | USA |  | 328 | 317 | 324 | 343 | 325 | 1637 | ||
| 69.787% | 67.447% | 68.936% | 72.979% | 69.149% | 69.660% | |||||||
| 6. | Hiscox Artemis | Richard Davison | GBR | | 321 | 324 | 326 | 328 | 333 | 1632 | ||
| 68.298% | 68.936% | 69.362% | 69.787% | 70.851% | 69.447% | |||||||
| 7. | Apollo van het Vijverhof | Jeroen Devroe | BEL |  | 313 | 323 | 320 | 324 | 325 | 1605 | ||
| 66.596% | 68.723% | 68.085% | 68.936% | 69.149% | 68.298% | |||||||
| 8. | Fitzcerraldo | Judith Harvey | GBR | | 318 | 313 | 319 | 324 | 318 | 1592 | ||
| 67.660% | 66.596% | 67.872% | 68.936% | 67.660% | 67.745% | |||||||
| 9. | Mr President | Stephanie Croxford | GBR | | 315 | 314 | 317 | 320 | 317 | 1583 | ||
| 67.021% | 66.809% | 67.447% | 68.085% | 67.447% | 67.362% | |||||||
| 10. | Ovation | Christa Laarakkers | NED | | 304 | 313 | 312 | 316 | 308 | 1553 | ||
| 64.681% | 66.596% | 66.383% | 67.234% | 65.532% | 66.085% | |||||||
| 11. | Whitni Star | Marc Boblet | FRA |  | 299 | 312 | 310 | 313 | 313 | 1547 | ||
| 63.617% | 66.383% | 65.957% | 66.596% | 66.596% | 65.830% | |||||||
| 12. | Louis D’Or | Henriette Andersen | GBR | | 305 | 308 | 299 | 306 | 312 | 1530 | ||
| 64.894% | 65.532% | 63.617% | 65.106% | 66.383% | 65.106% | |||||||
| 13. | Exquis Clearwater | Anne van Olst | DEN |  | 299 | 308 | 296 | 301 | 314 | 1518 | ||
| 63.617% | 65.532% | 62.979% | 64.043% | 66.809% | 64.596% | |||||||
