Beerbaum claims the 200.000 € Telefonica Grand Prix…

Ludger Beerbaum´s victory seemed so obvious… but he had to beat some serious competitors to be the second winner of the five stars Telefonica Grand Prix of Corunna.

Seven riders went clear through the thirteen obstacles and sixteen efforts of the first round of this Grand Prix built by the Spanish course designer Santiago Varela Ullastres. “It was a perfect course regarding the level of the competitors here: big jumps, but without technical problems. May be a little difficulty from the vertical nº 6 to the Rollex oxer, but anyway, for Gladdys it was not a big deal,” said Ludger Beerbaum after the class. However, some good pairs, as famous as Meredith Beerbaum and Shutterfly, were not invited to the jump-off. First to go with a surprising Illostra Dark, Eugénie Legrand had a fall. Actually, Ludger was the first rider to try to go fast and clear, but “I did not take all the risks, I did not want to make my mare crazy.” And the real risk for Ludger was to see some pairs like Steve Guerdat/ Tijl van Pallieterland, Marco Kutscher/Montender or Bernado Alves/Topic van’t Voorhof coming afterwards. But Ludger was lucky: Guerdat was 45 tenths slower, Kutscher 61 tenths and if Alves was much quicker (-1”43) his horse put a pole down on the first jump of the double combination.

After the German Masters, last month at Stuttgart, this is the second significant win for Gladdys who is coming back after a one year rest as she was injured in September 2004. Will she be Ludger’s partner for the World Equestrian Game 2006?: “I want to be careful with that, you never know with the horses. I see her being more fit for a World Cup final than for a big championship outside like Aachen. Actually we are working on the come back of Goldfever, he will start in small shows in January and I think that he will be more appropriate for Aachen.”

Ludger said that he enjoyed the show at Corunna: “OK, it’s more that 2000 kilometres away, but it is a very relaxing show for us. Everything is perfect, the facilities a great: the warming-up arena is huge; the stables are very quite and comfortable. The footing is good, nothing tense us. We need more shows like that during the year!” Of course, Ludger did not speak about the 60.000 € he won tonight. But it surely helped him to be in a good mood!