Spain’s Dani Dockx & Grandioso Win Wellington World Cup Grand Prix Special for 1st Victory in USA
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 24, 2015–José Daniel Martín Dockx rode Grandioso to the first victory in the United States for the Spanish Olympic and World Games team partnership by winning the World Cup Grand Prix Special at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival under the lights Saturday night.
Dani Dockx rode the P.R.E. stallion to a score of 72.864 per cent for the win over Swedish multi Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén on Divertimento in second on 70.647 per cent and Germany’s Christoph Koschel on Tiesto in third on 69.471 per cent. The top ranked American was Arlene “Tuny” Page on Woodstock in fourth on 68.216 per cent.
The victory was the first for Dani and the 16-year-old Pura Raza Español stallion in the first show in the U.S. for the 2014 Spanish national Grand Prix championship pair and the highest score as well first victory for a P.R.E. horse in a CDI in the United States.
“It is amazing to be here in the United States to win,” Dani told dressage-news.com. “This has been a dream for so many years to come here and compete. We came here and won in our second test.
“I am really, really happy for Kim Boyer, the owner of Grandioso and our sponsor.”
Dani took over the ride on Grandioso, now the 16 years olds, a year after Courtney King-Dye who had competed the horse to Intetrmediate 2 suffered a serious riding accident.
Grandioso is owned by Hampton Green Farm in Wellington, Florida and Fruitport, Michigan that is operated by Kim Boyer who also is a major sponsor of American youth programs as well as the Global Dressage Festival.
In the past three years, Dani and Grandioso have competed on the Spanish team at the Olympic Games in London in 2012, the European Championships in 2013 and the World Equestrian Games in Normandy last summer. The pair are the highest ranked Spanish combination on the International Equestrioan Federation (FEI) world rankings as of the end of 2014.
In an unusual situation, the U.S. P.R.E. association, that has also been organized by Kim Boyer, was a sponsor of this third week of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival and so Kim presented the awards to the top three placed combinations.
For the Spanish pair there were no mistakes in the Special and there had been none in the Grand Prix when they placed second two days ago in their first cometition in the U.S.
The results reflected the changing face of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Festival as a truly international compeitition with the top three places going to European combinations.
However, there was some griping over disparities in scores by the panel of five judges.
The second-placed Tinne on Divertimento received 67.745 per cent and sixth ranking from Lee Tubman of Canada and 73.137 and first place from Linda Zang of the United States.
The eighth-placed American Alice Tarjan on Elfenfener received a score from Wim Ernes of the Netherlands of 61.471 per cent but 70 per cent from Raphaël Saleh of France.
Lauren Sammis, another American, on Whitman received awards of 59.412 per cent from both Gabriel Armando of Argentina and Raphaël Saleh and 70.000 per cent from Lee Tubman of Canada.
There is no appeal process for judges awards and the so-called six per cent rule designed to eliminate wide disparities applies only to championships.
Results:
