Isabell Werth & Weihegold Hold On to World No. 1 Slightly Ahead of Laura Graves & Verdades, Kasey Perry-Glass & Dublet Move Up to Highest Ever at No. 8
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Jan. 30, 2019
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Isabell Werth on Weihegold OLD held on to the world No. 1 spot by a slim margin over Laura Graves on Verdades at the end of January, as the German and American stars head to a likely third straight World Cup showdown. Kasey Perry-Glass on Dublet campaigning to join her U.S. team mate in the Freestyle world championship climbed into the globe’s top 10 for the first time.
Isabell’s place at the top of the world rankings on 2,723 points is just six points ahead of Laura on 2,717–the six points a difference of just 0.22 per cent–after the two riders and their horses jumped over each other in the last half of 2018. Laura and her KWPN gelding displaced Isabell and Weihegold to become the first American combination to top the standings last September. The German superstar reclaimed the No. 1 spot two months later.
Isabell and the Oldenburg mare , now aged 14, took the World Cup title in 2017 and 2018, though in Paris last year Laura and Verdades took the Grand Prix while placing second in the Freestyle. As the title defender, Isabell needs only to complete two qualifiers–she already has one–to earn a start at Gothenburg, Sweden April 3-7. Laura and Verdades have two of the three scores required to take one of the two slots allocated to the North American League.
The German superstar with more Olympic medals–six gold and four silver–than any other equestrian in history, remained at No. 3 with Bella Rose and No. 4 with Emilio, according to calculations by dressage-news.com. The official FEI rankings are expected to be reported later this week.
German Olympian Helen Langehanenberg on Damsey FRH, the 17-year-old Hanoverian stallion owned by Americans Louise Leatherdale and Susanne Meyer, climbed two places in the first month of 2019 to rank No. 5, to fill the slot of Denmark’s partnership of Cathrine Dufour on Cassidy dropping to the 13th spot as the pair have not shown since July.
Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin on Mount St. John Freestyle remain at No. 6 though the duo has not competed since claiming team and individual bronze medals at last September’s World Equestrian Games.
German Olympic and WEG rider Dorothee Schneider on Sammy Davis Jr. remained at No. 7.
Kasey Perry-Glass on Dublet, on the 2016 Olympic bronze medal team and the World Games silver medal squad along with Laura and Verdades, returned to competition in January after a break of four months, to vault three places to eighth in the world, the first time in the top 10.
Edward Gal of the Netherlands and Glock’s Zonik slipped one place to ninth with Denmark’s Daniel Bachmann Andersen on Blue Horze Zack rounding out the top 10.
