Dressage-News

July 24, 2021

Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera posted a career high Grand Prix score at the Tokyo Olympics Saturday to get Germany off to early success in the campaign for team gold while the USA’s Sabine Schut-Kery on Sanceo produced a personal best result to stand fourth overall so far.

Jessica scored 84.379% on the 14-year-old Trakehner mare as the Olympic rookie and lead off rider on the team that includes Isabell Werth as the most successful equestrian in Olympic history with 10 medals and Dorothee Schneider at her third Games.

“Dalera was gripped by the atmosphere,” Jessica said after her ride, “and overall full of strength, energy and fully focused.”

Asked about pressure, she replied: “I thought about the pressure for several months, weeks and days and came to the conclusion that I cannot do more than do my best. I wasn’t more nervous than at the German Championships because I wanted to be super, super good there, too. It was a similar feeling for me, but fortunately for Dalera it makes no difference whether it is the German championships or the Olympic Games.”

Among highlights of the first of two days of the Grand Prix was Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour on Bohemian being awarded 81.056%, the only combination other than Jessica and Dalera to score at least 80%.

Edward Gal of the Netherlands showed off Total US for a score of 78.649%, a nine-year-old son of the legendary Totilas on which Edward wowed the world until the horse was sold in 2010 without competing at an Olympics.

In her first Olympics, Sabine rode Sanceo to a personal best of 78.416% to place second to Jessica and Dalera in the highly competitive group that included Olympic medalists Hans Peter Minderhoud of the Netherlands on Dream Boy for 76.817% and Britain’s Carl Hester on En Vogue with 75.124%.

“He likes going in the venue,” Sabine said of Sanceo that she rode for team gold at the 2015 Pan American Games.
“He puffed up a bit.”

She said the coming here as a member of the team, “you don’t ride for yourself any more. It was important that I ride for my team mates and… for my country.”

Team mates Adrienne Lyle on Salvino and Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper are scheduled to ride Sunday.

With a new format for these Olympics, the Grand Prix is the qualifier for eight of the original 15 teams–Austria lost its team standings when a horse was withdrawn–to move on to the Grand Prix Special with a clean slate to decide the top three to stand on the podium.

Also new was breaking the Grand Prix into six different groups of all the team riders plus individuals to be among the 18 combinations to qualify for the Grand Prix Freestyle and individual medals next Wednesday. The top two from each group plus another six based on scores will be entered in the Freestyle.

Of the three groups competing Saturday, automatic qualifiers for the Freestyle were:

Charlotte Fry of Great Britain and Everdale with a personal best 77.096%, Therese Nilshagen of Sweden on Dante Weltino with 75.140%; Cathrine Dufour of Denmark on Bohemian 81.056%, the Netherlands’ Edward Gal on Total US at 78.649%, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl of Germany on TSF Dalera at 84.379% and Sabine Schut-Kery of the U.S. on Sanceo at 78.416%.

Three groups will compete Sunday that will determine the eight teams to move to the Grand Prix Special and the 18 individuals for the Freestyle.

Included are two of three riders from Germany and the United States.

Complete scores are available at: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/equestrian/results-dressage-comp-0001d1-.htm