Winner of the Grand Prix of the Grand Hotels "Les Trois Rois" Timo Heiniger with Connor Ege
These were the highlights of the fifth and last day of the first „Zurich Youth Masters“ at the Horse Park Zurich-Dielsdorf (CH): The Grand Prix of the categories Children, Juniors and U25. And once again there was a lot of very positive feedback from the riders, spectators and sponsors, so that the organisers had every reason to be satisfied after the finals of the five days of the tournament.
In the final Grand Prix of the Grand Hotels „Les Trois Rois“ in the U25 category, which was endowed with 15,000 Euros, the Swiss rider Timo Heiniger and his Holsteiner gelding Connor Ege rode to a great victory in front of their home crowd. In an exciting jump-off, for which four riders qualified with a clear initial roudn, he relegated the German Lea-Sophia Gut with Canturia and the Italian Martina Simoni with Dalvaro to the other places on the podium. Swiss World Championship rider Edouard Schmitz was unlucky with Babylone des Erables, finishing fourth with two faults. „I had hoped that I would have a great day today and stay clear, and that’s exactly how it worked out,“ said a delighted Heiniger, who received a wildcard for the CHI Geneva in December in addition to the prize money. He also thanked the organisers who „put on a great show for us.“
In the Grand Prix of the Juniors, Swiss junior Lou Puch narrowly missed the podium with Leave the Light on and finished on fourth place at the ende. Ten pairs qualified for the jump-off, in addition to Puch also Joris Hanselmann with Forever by Wichenstein CH. The Swiss young rider was not able to keep up his form from the initial round and finished tenth. The competition over 140 centimetres was won by the Italian Veronica Carta with Leo Lionni, ahead of the French rider Charles Rulquin (Tam Tam du Valon) and Francesca Ripamonti (ITA) with Dancer van de Helle.
38 were at the start of the Grand Prix in the Children’s category, twelve made it into the jump-off with a clear round, among them four Swiss riders. The French rider Melina Bouillot was first to go with her ten-year-old French stallion Canabis d’Albain. She rode on the attack and her four-legged partner helped her a lot. She set a strong mark with a flawless 37.01 seconds. Pair after pair tried to reach or top her, but they failed time after time and so the Frenchwoman won the competition superiorly. The closest rider to her was the Belgian Lars Verschueren with Sublime van de Lindehoeve Z with 41.77. The third place on the podium was taken by the Swiss Malin Cavegn in the saddle of James with 43.43, to the delight of the home crowd.
„It is elementary for the young Swiss show jumping talents that they have the opportunity to compete internationally in Switzerland. A great organised tournament,“ was the conclusion of the President of the Swiss Equestrian Federation, Damian Müller on the premiere of the Zurich Youth Masters.
