Frankfurt Added as World Cup Qualifier

4 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Frankfurt Added as World Cup Qualifier
Valentina Truppa riding Eremo del Castegna at Frankfurt in 2011 to become the first Italian to win a World Cup qualifier. File photo. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Oct. 22, 2020

The Frankfurt, Germany Christmas show has become a World Cup event as a replacement for one of five events canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, and a decade since the popular event last hosted a qualifier.

The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) on Thursday listed in its calendar Frankfurt as an addition to the Western European League, replacing what had been a CDI5* for Dec. 17-20. The event also holds the German series finals of the Nürnberger Burg-Pokal at Small Tour and the Louisdor Prize for developing Grand Prix.

Stuttgart, Germany was one of the five World Cup qualifying events for the Final in Gothenburg, Sweden next April to cancel, along with Madrid; Lyon, France; London, Olympia and Amsterdam.

The opening Western European event, in Denmark, was staged successfully a week ago with Salzburg, Austria and Mechelen, Belgium to come in December and Neumünster, Germany and s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, scheduled for 2021.

A World Cup qualifier was last held in Frankfurt in 2011, won by Valentina Truppa of Italy on Eremo del Castegno. The loss of the event also led to the end of the Young Rider World Cup that Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff had staged, underwriting all the costs to bring riders and horses from around the globe.

The Frankfurt event is now run by her stepson, Matthias Alexander Rath.