Jessica Kurten wins the big class in Cannes
Kamal Bahamdan, who is a business man with only two horses, won the opening speed class at Cannes with his good mare Pinochetta. The pair also scored in a similar class at Valencia last year but Kamal was still thrilled to win. Based in Holland he trains with GCT President and Founder Jan Tops so it was a satisying way for the Tour founder to begin the show as well. Although many of the riders treated the class as a warm up Great Britain's Nick Skelton who has been in very good form of late , had no intention of merely schooling Unique and his time of 62.08 looked all over the winner as it was two seconds faster than the previous best. But he was followed into the ring by Christian Alhmann and Nick's lead lasted for only the 61.99 seconds it took the German rider to finish over Serge Houtmann's course.
Kamal though was not intimidated by the times set by two of the world's best and a turn into the the last line gained a half second advantage which he maintained until he was through the finish. 61.45 was easily good enough to take the 3200Euro first prize. “It was fun” said Kamal,”my mare loves it here and you can always count on her.” Pinochetta will be stepping up in class soon as Kamal's other horse is currently off work.”You could say she is the Lone Ranger now” laughed the rider.
In the second, jump off class, 15 made it through to the timed round but despite the numbers it ended up as rather a bloodless win for Jessica Kurten with the evergreen Castle Forbes Libertina. Although Daniel Deusser and Phillip Rozier had made good attempts with times of 38.7 and 37.9 respectively, neither they or their horses,Cabreado SE and Randgraaf, had any answer to the flying Irish combination. Jessica flew over the last and through the finish in 36.15, which left owner Lady Georgina Forbes, 8000 Euro better off. “Today Libertina was particularly wonderful, it was an honour and a pleasure to be her partner,” enthused Jessica.
When Libertina wins, it’s always an evident victory. The mare of Jessica Kuerten is back after a restful period that had started in March. After a first go in Torino, the phenomenal horse wins its 17th international class in Cannes.
“Cannes is one of my favourite shows. Libertina is in good shape! In Torino she was still very fresh because she had not been to shows since March. So my goal for tonight had been to jump her and get her through the jump-off, then give her a rest until Saturday. She feels particularly good. I hope we are lucky on Saturday, but one never knows. It was definitely very fun to ride her tonight, I am very happy about her performance and about winning tonight.”