Bengtsson wins his second GCT Grand Prix this season
Skill, scope and agility are three very important components that mark the world’s best show jumping combinations. It took all of this and more to win the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Monaco. And Rolf-Goran Bengtsson was the only one of the 48 starters to jump double clean rounds to win his second Global Champions Tour event this season. He took home the cheque for 92,000 euros and his second Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch.
The Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Monaco was set on a non-permanent area at the Port Hercule back dropped by the palace. The social scene that accompanies the Global Champions Tour in Monaco show has led to its heavy upscale sponsorships.
Precision riding over a very technical track saw Rolf produce two perfectly executed rounds with the same stallion that he won the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Germany. Rolf remains one of the most compelling forces in the game: World Champion, Olympian and Silver medallist at the Beijing Olympic Games. He now adds two GCT wins to his statistics portfolio.
There was no shortage of stiff competition in the Grand Prix as the world’s best riders and horses faced German course designer Frank Rothenberger for the fourth time this season. Frank has built four of the five rounds of the Global Champions Tour this season, yet every arena presents a different palate and set of circumstances.
Monaco arena is small with very little room for adjustability on course and Rothenberger’s track was big and technical.
Twelve clear rounds, one on a time fault and five on four faults made up the 18 who went through to the second round.
Of those, one would have predicted that three or four would go through to jump-off. However it proved a very difficult challenge for some. Lauren Hough, first to go with Quick Study was eliminated with two refusals, Billy Twomey(IRL) retired with Tinka’s Serenade
Meredith and Shutterfly had a misunderstanding at the Eurosport vertical causing a sudden stop and further rails put them out of contention. Ludger Beerbaum, who was leading the GCT ranking after the Cannes leg, had three fences down.
The pressure was turned up in the competition as the heavily packed stands watched the clear show jumping rounds multiply for Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Casall La Silla. No other combinations could match this and he was deemed the winner of the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Monaco.
German Christian Ahlmann came the closest with just one time fault on Taloubet Z. Adding a stride between the Massimo Dutti fence and the Global Champions Tour oxer left him fractionally over the time but good enough for second place.
Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) carried four faults from the first round jumped clean in the second and placed third as the fastest combination on four penalties with Let's Fly.
The GCT leaderboard has once again changed with Australian Edwina Alexander moving ahead of Ludger. Edwina concluded the two rounds with 4 faults that eventually placed her on time into seventh place in the Grand Prix. She now stands with 155.00 ranking points, a little ahead of Ludger who has 151.50.
The Global Champions Tour heads to Estoril in Portugal next weekend.