Steffen Peters & Suppenkasper Stretch Winning Streak to 17 With Wellington CDI4* Grand Prix Special Victory

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Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper. © 2021 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 30, 2021–Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper stretched their winning streak to 17 with victory Saturday in the Global Dressage Festival CDI4* Grand Prix Special.

Steffen and the 13-year-old KWPN gelding were awarded 75.766% for what is the rider’s favorite test but was marred by a mistake in the one-tempi changes.

The streak of 17 straight victories beginning in January last year, have all been in the United States–13 in Wellington and four at Thermal, California. On Ravel, Steffen posted the previous best record of a total of 17 wins from 2008 to 2010, broken up by a second and third place finishes but that included the World Cup championship in 2009 and all three competitions in the CHIO at Aachen, Germany, the world’s most prestigious and competitive show, the same year.

Charlotte Jorst of Reno, Nevada on Kastel’s Nintendo was second on 72.043% with Canada’s Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu on All In third on 71.553%.

“The Grand Prix Special is always my favorite test,” said Steffen who is pursuing a place on his fifth Olympic team. “It has those beautiful transitions from extended trot to passage, and then the half-passes are a little easier to ride, so there was a bit more of a throttle there with him today because he was so relaxed.

“The passage tour felt really good, and I really thought I had him there for the one-tempis, I really collected him on the short side, and then I risked it a little and it was just a little too much, so we had a small mistake. But, he’s done five shows in a row without a single mistake, and at the end of the day I am human and they’re horses and not machines, so those things happen.”

Debbie McDonald, the U.S. team coach goes a couple of times a week to the farm where Suppenkasper is stabled in Wellington.

“We will be taking a look at all of the videos, and we always appreciate the judges’ comments so we will review those, and go from there,” he said.

“I’m so fortunate that he’s a horse that I can warm up for a bit and get all of the collected work done in 20 minutes, and take him for a half an hour walk, so the workload on his legs is extremely limited for a Grand Prix horse.

“I believe in preserving horses, not just winning, doing well, or making the team. Truly preserving them, spoiling them, giving them lots of love and relatively easy work, keeping them fit but in a relaxed, happy way.”

Results:

CDI4* Grand Prix Special

Elke Ebert William Warren Christof Umbach Mariano Santos Redondo Kjell Myhre
Pl. Score Nation Athlete Horse E H C M B
1. 75.766 USA Steffen Peters Suppenkasper 78.191 73.298 74.255 76.170 76.915
2. 72.043 USA Charlotte Jorst Kastel’s Nintendo 72.128 71.383 70.000 73.936 72.766
3. 71.553 CAN Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu All In 71.277 70.213 71.383 72.979 71.915
4. 70.766 DOM Yvonne Losos De Muñiz Aquamarijn 71.277 69.681 71.170 70.426 71.277
5. 69.894 USA Katherine Bateson Chandler Alcazar 71.915 67.979 70.532 67.766 71.277
6. 68.511 USA Anna Buffini FRH Davinia la Douce 67.553 67.340 68.830 70.000 68.830
7. 68.277 USA Susan Dutta Figeac DC 68.830 68.085 66.383 71.277 66.809
8. 67.511 GBR Susan Pape Harmony’s Eclectisch 67.553 66.809 67.021 66.915 69.255
9. 66.085 USA Karen Lipp Whitney 66.277 67.234 64.894 65.213 66.809
10. 65.681 USA Mette Rosencrantz Dzeko 63.617 64.362 66.489 68.085 65.851
11. 62.957 USA Shelly Francis Danilo 63.000 61.830 60.766 65.234 63.957