Charlotte Dujardin & Uthopia Win, Carl Hester & Nip Tuck 2nd at London Olympia World Cup Grand Prix

LONDON, Dec. 15, 2015–Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin rode Uthopia to a personal best score to win the Olympia World Cup Grand Prix Tuesday with the stallion’s former rider, Carl Hester on Nip Tuck runner-up.

Charlotte and the 14-year-old KWPN scored 77.460 per cent in the first competition for the pair in 18 months. The previous best for Charlotte and Uthopia, was 76.960 per cent at Windsor, England in May, 2014, the last CDI for the duo before this event.

Carl and Nip Tuck, the 11-year-old KWPN gelding that he rode for Great Britain on silver medal teams at both the 2014 World Games and this year’s European Championships, was awarded 76.660 per cent for second.

Dutch Olympian Hans Peter Minderhoud on Glock’s Flirt was third on 76.120 per cent in the sixth of nine World Cup Western European League events to qualify for the Final in Gothenburg, Sweden Mar. 23-28.

The Freestyle that decides points to qualify for the Final of the annual world championships is scheduled for Wednesday.

Olympia is Charlotte’s first World Cup event for the 2015/16 season. She has taken the title at the last two World Cup Finals on Valegro, her Olympic gold medal mount.

This was also her fifth straight victory in Olympia’s opening night Grand Prix.

“It was quite a risk to come here and you couldn’t do that with many horses,” Charlotte said, “but he has the best temperament in the world and I am over the moon to win.

“It was also nice to bring another horse, take the pressure off Valegro and give another horse a chance.”

Charlotte first took over the ride on Uthopia in 2013 after Carl Hester, her coach and part-owner of the horse, had competed the KWPN stallion for three years.

Carl rode Uthopia on Great Britain’s team that won gold at the 2012 Olympics and the 2011 European Championships, twice notching Grand Prix scores above 80 per cent. He took back the ride for the 2013 Europeans.

Charlotte rode Valegro, also part-owned by Carl, in those championships.

Results:

CDI-W Grand Prix							(E)	(H)	(C)	(M)	(B)	Total
1.	5	Uthopia	Dujardin, Charlotte	GBR		2700.00 GBR	389.5	391.0	385.5	381.5	389.0	1936.5 points
	bay 14y.S /Metall/Inspekteur/KWPN/GBR40907/ Mr Carl Hester & Mrs Sasha Stewart						77.900 %	78.200 %	77.100 %	76.300 %	77.800 %	77.460 %
							1.	1.	1.	3.	1.
2.	7	Nip Tuck	Hester, Carl	GBR		2000.00 GBR	387.0	385.0	375.0	391.5	378.0	1916.5 points
	bay 11y.G /Don Ruto/Animo/KWPN/102UB47/ Mr C Hester, Miss Jane de la Mare						77.400 %	77.000 %	75.000 %	78.300 %	75.600 %	76.660 %
							2.	2.	2.	2.	3.
3.	10	Glock’s Flirt	Minderhoud, Hans Peter	NED		1300.00 GBR	380.5	374.0	371.0	394.0	383.5	1903.0 points
	chest 14y.S /Florestan/Gauguin de Lully/CH/103DD24/ Ing. Gaston Glock						76.100 %	74.800 %	74.200 %	78.800 %	76.700 %	76.120 %
							3.	3.	3.	1.	2.
4.	16	Paridon Magi	Vilhelmson Silfven, Tinne	SWE		1000.00 GBR	366.0	366.5	365.0	368.0	362.5	1828.0 points
	bay 12y.G /Don Primero 981/Napoleon 625/SWB/102QX23/ Lövsta Stuteri Ab						73.200 %	73.300 %	73.000 %	73.600 %	72.500 %	73.120 %
							5.	5.	4.	4.	5.
5.	8	Jojo Az	Kirk Thinggaard, Agnete	DEN		900.00 GBR	368.5	359.5	355.0	362.5	365.5	1811.0 points
	bay 12y.G /Ginus/Justboy/103KA01/ Julianelyst Aps						73.700 %	71.900 %	71.000 %	72.500 %	73.100 %	72.440 %
							4.	6.	6.	5.	4.
6.	13	Bonzanjo	van Silfhout, Diederik	NED		800.00 GBR	360.5	368.0	353.5	358.5	355.5	1796.0 points
	chest 9y.G /Jazz/Contango/KWPN/104EN90/ De Dalhoeve, Alex En Jannet van Sil						72.100 %	73.600 %	70.700 %	71.700 %	71.100 %	71.840 %
							7.	4.	7.	6.	7.
7.	15	Tiamo	Verwimp, Jorinde	BEL		700.00 GBR	358.0	356.0	342.5	351.0	357.5	1765.0 points
	bay 15y.S /Lester/Hemmingway/KWPN/103CA97/ Verwimp						71.600 %	71.200 %	68.500 %	70.200 %	71.500 %	70.600 %
							8.	7.	11.	10.	6.
8.	6	Rubin Al Asad	Griffith, Lara	GBR		300.00 GBR	353.5	352.0	348.5	352.5	355.0	1761.5 points
	bay 13y.G /Rubin Royal/HANN/102VC47/ Dr W & Mrs U Bechtolsheimer						70.700 %	70.400 %	69.700 %	70.500 %	71.000 %	70.460 %
							9.	8.	9.	8.	8.
8.	4	Wie-Atlantico de Ymas	Dahl, Anders	DEN		300.00 GBR	366.0	347.5	350.5	347.5	350.0	1761.5 points
	chest 16y.G /Wie Weltmeyer/Rondo/HANN/ESP03716/ Mrs P Bigwood & Mr A Dahl						73.200 %	69.500 %	70.100 %	69.500 %	70.000 %	70.460 %
							5.	9.	8.	12.	9.
Other, non-placed competitors
10.	14	Annarico	Verliefden, Fanny	BEL			344.0	329.5	358.5	357.5	349.5	1739.0 points
	bay 10y.M /Lord Loxley/Havel/KWPN/103VJ44/ Fanny Verliefden						68.800 %	65.900 %	71.700 %	71.500 %	69.900 %	69.560 %
							12.	12.	5.	7.	10.
11.	3	Batuta	Carvalho, Goncalo	POR			352.5	336.0	344.5	352.5	347.0	1732.5 points
	bay 9y.M /Quixote/Icaro/103CG41/ Ishi – Intern. Sport Horses Investm						70.500 %	67.200 %	68.900 %	70.500 %	69.400 %	69.300 %
							10.	10.	10.	8.	11.
12.	9	Don Gregorius	Logutenkova, Inna	UKR			350.0	335.5	336.5	349.5	346.5	1718.0 points
	black 13y.S /Don Cardinale/Placido/OLDBG/UKR40057/ Llc Vian – Group						70.000 %	67.100 %	67.300 %	69.900 %	69.300 %	68.720 %
							11.	11.	12.	11.	12.
13.	11	Santurion de Massa	Pinto, Daniel	POR			329.0	318.0	321.5	328.5	336.0	1633.0 points
	bay 9y.S /Munchhausen/Estoiro/103YD95/ Syndicat Santurion						65.800 %	63.600 %	64.300 %	65.700 %	67.200 %	65.320 %
							14.	14.	13.	14.	13.
14.	12	Vancouver K	Reynolds, Judy	IRL			327.0	315.5	318.0	330.0	327.5	1618.0 points
	bay 13y.G /Jazz/Ferro/KWPN/IRL40808/ Joe & Kathleen Reynolds						65.400 %	63.100 %	63.600 %	66.000 %	65.500 %	64.720 %
							15.	15.	15.	13.	14.
15.	17	Rubins Nite	Watson-Greaves, Hayley	GBR			331.5	314.5	319.0	312.0	325.0	1602.0 points
	black 11y.G /Rubin-Royal/Limbo/BHHS/103RB72/ Hayley Watson – Greaves						66.300 %	62.900 %	63.800 %	62.400 %	65.000 %	64.080 %
							13.	16.	14.	16.	15.
16.	1	Warlocks Charm	Andersen, Henriette	GBR			310.0	328.5	312.0	322.0	318.5	1591.0 points
	chest 12y.G /Jazz/Farrington/KWPN/103LO57/ Henriette Andersen & Jennifer Charl						62.000 %	65.700 %	62.400 %	64.400 %	63.700 %	63.640 %
							16.	13.	16.	15.	16.