Charlotte Dujardin & Freestyle Return to Competition to Win Equerry Bolesworth CDI3* Grand Prix With First 80%

5 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Charlotte Dujardin & Freestyle Return to Competition to Win Equerry Bolesworth CDI3* Grand Prix With First 80%
Charlotte Dujardin and Mount St. John Freestyle. File photo. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

CHESTER, England, June 12, 2019–Charlotte Dujardin and Mount St. John Freestyle made a stunning return to competition to win the Equerry Bolesworth International CDI3* Grand Prix Wednesday with a personal best score and the first above 80% for the British team partnership.

Despite the impact of flooding that forced the event to be closed to the public for Wednesday and Thursday, Great Britain’s Gareth Hughes and Classic Briolinca also posted a personal best result for runner-up while Charlotte and her catch ride on Erlentanz was third.

Charlotte and the 10-year-old Hanoverian mare scored 80.348%, with four of the five judges awarding marks above 80% in the first competition since the World Equestrian Games in Tryon nine months ago where the pair led Great Britain to team bronze as well as taking individual bronze. The previous best result was 79.652% set at this same event last year.

Charlotte who was a member of the Grand Prix 80% club with Valegro joins Isabell Werth of Germany (Weihegold OLD, Bella Rose and Emilio) and Edward Gal of the Netherlands (Totilas and Glock’s Undercover) to have produced results of at least 80% on more than one horse.

Gareth Hughes on Classic Briolinca, 13-year-old KWPN mare, also produced a personal best score of 75.761% to place second. The previous best score was 74.696% set a month ago while competing on the gold medal Nations Cup team in France with Carl Hester on Hawtins Delicato and Richard Davison on Bubblingh, both British-bred horses.

Charlotte and Erlentanz, the 12-year-old Trakehner gelding she has been competing this year for rider/owner Sonnar Murray Brown who is recovering from a car accident, placed third on 75.717%. Beginning in March, this was the third CDI for the pair.

Carl and Hawtins Delicato, the first of 16 combinations to start, was fourth on 75.609%. Carl is aiming the 11-year-old British-bred Hanoverian gelding that he also competed at Tryon, for the European Championships in Rotterdam in two months and the Tokyo Olympics next year.

The previous Europeans at Rotterdam in 2011 saw Carl on Uthopia and Charlotte on Valegro on the British team that won the nation’s first ever European gold.

Richard and Bubblingh were fifth on 72.022%.

Heavy rain flooded roads around the Equerry International that forced organizers to close the show to the public Wednesday and Thursday but dressage and jumping competition went on. Photo courtesy Katherine Bateson Chandler

Results:

CDI3* Grand Prix