One girl's dream was dashed today when new Dutch dressage star Adelinde Cornelissen was forced to withdraw her ride, Parzival, from the 2009 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Dressage final which kicks off in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas at noon Thursday.
The Rolex FEI World Cup™ Finals will continue at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas through Sunday. The Finals feature World Cup Finals in the two Olympic disciplines of show jumping and dressage.
The 29-year-old rider's horse suffered a tendon injury on Tuesday and, although Adelinde walked him around the ring during this afternoon's warm-up session, it was clear he was unsound. In deep disappointment she was forced to withdraw the horse with which she created a massive sensation on the European circuit this season with three superb wins during the qualifying rounds. Parzival is a 12 year old KWPN gelding by Jazz Pref.
Adelinde's star is a rising one however. She caused a huge stir when second to Sweden's Jan Brink in Falsterbo in 2007 and then rocked the dressage world again when runner-up to Germany's Isabell Werth at Aachen, Germany the following season on just her third international competition abroad. The Dutch Olympic team had already been chosen at that stage, so the blossoming partnership were named as reserves for Hong Kong last summer, but Adelinde had been hoping that she would get the chance to prove just how good they could be under the Las Vegas spotlights this week. That wasn't to be however….
And the drama didn't stop there. Dressage Ground Jury member, Dr. Vincenzo Truppa, had to be replaced today by Assistant Technical Delegate and Reserve Judge Maribel Alonso de Quinzanos from Mexico when he failed to turn up. It wasn't by choice however, as the Italian dressage judge, who is a Tax Advisor by profession, found himself cast away on an island off Iceland when his flight from Rome was forced into an emergency landing after its Alitalia pilot suffered a heart attack. All passengers are holed up in a hotel overnight and will be flown to New York tomorrow, but the show must go on without Dr Truppa.