Aachen: Beezie Madden wins ROLEX Grand Prix
The ROLEX Grand Prix, the Grand Prix of Aachen was pure excitement. At the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen
2007, three riders reached the final jump-off and risked everything. After the first competitor Roger-Yves Bost from France picked up four faults in a time of 54.45 seconds with his stallion, Ideal de la Loge, Christian Ahlmann wanted to give all. “I desperately wanted to win the Grand Prix of Aachen and knew that I would have to jump a speedy round, because my fellow competitor Beezie Madden’s horse Authentic, is one of the fastest in the world. So, I decided to risk all I could, which proved to be too much in the end,” said the 32-year-old rider. Eight faults in 52.88 seconds was the end result of the 14-year-old grey Holsteiner gelding Cöster by Calato x Constant. This left everything wide open for the Vice World Champion of Aachen 2006: Beezie Madden. The 43-year-old jumped clear in a time of 59.31 seconds.
The US-American who lives in the State of New York was a member of the gold-winning team at the Olympic Games in Athens. In Aachen last year she took silver with the team. Anne Kursinski with Starman was the last American rider to the win the Grand Prix of Aachen 1991.
“Winning here is a super victory for me, that I definitely wanted to add to my list of successful results. It was very exciting riding here. At the start I risked more and rode faster, but towards the end I was able to slow the pace down because my aim was to jump clear,” reported Beezie Madden. “At the beginning my horse slipped a bit so I had to ride more carefully in order to remain clear. Then unfortunately I picked up four faults. I have been riding this horse since he was a five-year-old. I am very fond of him, because he is very courageous and good,” commented the French rider Roger-Yves Bost.
Two of the favourites were already knocked out of the competition in the first round: Jos Lansink collected four faults in the triple combination comprising of two fences over water with his 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games gold medallist horse. “Needless to say, I was disappointed, every rider dreams of winning here. But my stallion didn’t accelerate enough, he overjumped himself somewhat at the first fence. But nobody can take away the memory of my victory at the FEI World Equestrian Games. The crowd in Aachen is simply fantastic,” the Belgian explained. “The triple combination was more difficult than it has ever been in Aachen. Because the horses that competed in the Grand Prix here, hadn’t seen any ditches up until then, it was extremely difficult for many of them,” commented the German National Coach, Kurt Gravemeier. The competition was also over after the first round for the FEI World Equestrian Games Aachen 2006 bronze medallist, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum. Her sensitive gelding, Shutterfly, refused at an oxer and then picked up four faults at the same fence. “I took the bend a bit too tight and didn’t leave myself enough time, which frightened Shutterfly a bit and he refused,” stated the Californian rider who lives in Thedinghausen.
Only nine riders jumped clear in the first round, including two German riders, Christian Ahlmann with Cöster and Holger Wulschner with Clausen.
Check the results.