Dressage-News

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 1, 2019–Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour rode Cassidy to a personal best score to win the Saab Top 10 CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday, edging past Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD in the richest non-championship dressage event in the world.

Cathrine and the 16-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding that have been partners since juniors a decade ago scored 89.445%, beating the 2016 Olympic combination’s previous best of 88.200% in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2018.

Cathrine and Cassidy, ranked No. 7 in the world, were stars of the 2017 European Championships where they captured team, individual and freestyle bronze medals then repeated with a freestyle bronze at this year’s Europeans.

Isabell and the 14-year-old Oldenburg mare ranked No. 2 in the world behind the rider and Bella Rose scored 89.310% for their second place. The duo captured the event in 2018 and Isabell rode Emilio to take the title in its inaugural year of 2017.

The win by Cathrine & Cassidy was only the fifth time that Isabell Weihegold have been beaten in 37 starts since the 2016 Olympics–Germans Jessica von Bredow Werndl and TSF Dalera in a Freestyle two weeks ago and Sönke Rothenberger and Cosmo in the Grand Prix Special in August, 2018 while the USA’s Laura Graves and Verdades came out on top twice, in the Grand Prix Special in Aachen, Germany in 2017 and the World Cup Final Grand Prix in Paris in 2018.

Patrik Kittel, the hometown favorite riding Well Done de la Roche, his 2018 World Games and 2019 European Championship partner, placed third on a personal best 86.115%. The previous best for Patrik and Well Done was 82.296% at the European Championships in August.

Eight of the 10 pairs that started the competition scored more than 80% in the musical performance. The Grand Prix and the Freestyle had total prize money of 2.5 million Swedish krona (US$261,000/€235,750).

Jessica von Bredow Werndl of Germany on Zaire-E was fourth on 85.825% to join the list of combinations logging personal bests.

Therese Nilshagen, one of the hometown favorites on Dante Weltino OLD, her partner on the Swedish team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon and the 2017 and 2019 European Championships, also logged a personal best of 83.765%. The score for Therese and the 12-year-old Oldenburg stallion surpassed their previous top of 83.396% at Aachen, Germany in July.

The two Dutch combinations in the lineup, Emmelie Scholtens on Desperado and Anne Meulendijks on MDH Avanti, both on this year’s European Championship team, set new career high scores.

Emmelie and Desperado, an 11-year-old KWPN stallion were awarded 83.045%, up from the previous best of 81.585% logged in May.

Anne Meulendijks on MDH Avanti scored 80.845%, the pair’s first result above 80% in their international career beginning at Young Rider almost seven years ago.

Håkan Buskhe, the chief executive officer of Saab, praised the effort of Patrik Kittel in creating and promoting the event and announced the Swedish global enterprise is extending its support to 2024.

Results:

CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle