Schwizer Leads WC Jumpers

By Staff Report April 21, 2012

U.S. rider Rich Fellers and the stallion Flexible advance to Sunday’s decisive Rolex FEI World Cup Final day three enviably positioned in a tie for second place in the overall standings. Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer starts Sunday’s final rounds in first place with a total of zero faults. His countryman Steve Guerdat is tied with Fellers, each with  one fault.

Weishaupt and Monte Bellini won Friday’s Round 2 with a speedy time of 33.04 seconds. Fellers finished eighth with a single rail down Friday, April 20, in Round 2 of competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

Germany’s Philipp Weishaupt and Monte Bellini were at the top of the class, and only two others–Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer (riding Carlina) and Germany’s Marco Kutscher (on Cornet Obolensky)–managed to master designer Louis Konickx’s course, coming in second and third, respectively. Riding Coriana van Klapscheut, Canada’s Eric Lamaze narrowly missed the jump off with a time fault, stopping the clock just 1/500th of a second off-pace to finish fourth.

Only the top 25 of the 33 contenders advance to the final round on Sunday, April 22. Of the nine U.S. riders that started the contest on Thursday, seven made the cut.

Beezie Madden (Cazenovia, NY) and Cortes C were the fastest of the four-faulters and the top-placed U.S. pair in Friday’s competition, finishing fifth. Madden and the 10-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding, owned by Abigail Wexner, had their rail at the same fence Fellers faulted, dropping the middle rail in the triple combination, 11B. The

The combination proved the bogey. Riding off a left-hand turn, riders needed plenty of momentum coming down to the opening vertical in order to make the two-stride distance to the following oxer of white poles. The the middle rail hit the floor for a total of 17 riders as the horses struggled to reach the back bar.

“That was a funny triple,” Fellers, of Sherwood, OR, said. “I don’t know what was affecting the horses’ vision, what they were looking at, but that’s not a typical rail for Flexible,” he said of the 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse, owned by Harry and Mollie Chapman.

“White poles are always more difficult to jump than poles with colors,” Kutscher observed. “It was the color of the poles, but also the fence was absolutely square and very wide – 1.70m I think, and then it was short to the vertical going out.”

“I felt like I rode him well and I don’t know what I would have done differently there. Anyways, that’s the sport.” Fellers was able to look at the bright side of Friday’s unlucky rail. “I thought of that when I came out of the ring, at least I don’t have to jump him off, and he’ll be that much more fresh for Sunday,” which is comprised of two rounds, with only half of the athletes advancing to the second (with a jump-off over a smaller course in the case of a tie).

Fellers second-place overall standing sees him sitting on a one-fault total, tied with Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat, who on Friday finished sixth on Nino des Buissonnets.

Of her fifth-place finish, Madden said, “I’m a little disappointed with that. But I thought he jumped well and we’re in a good place.” Madden believes the Day 3 course will be well-suited to Cortes C. “My horse has lots of scope and normally they big build on Sunday, so we will look to jump good rounds and I think we can move up.”

Because of the complicated World Cup scoring system – in which “points” are converted to penalties for the Sunday final according to a formula in which the top-ranked rider is reset to 0 and the rest are awarded scores based on their points multiplied by a co-efficient (.50) of the No. 1 athlete’s points after two days of competition – it’s easy for the ranking to get pretty wildly reshuffled on Day 3.

Madden heads into Sunday’s final competition in eighth place in the overall rankings, with seven faults. Margie Engle and Richard Spooner will enter the final round in equal 16th place on 14 fault totals. Engle (Wellington, FL) and Gladewinds, Griese, Garber, and Hidden Creek Farm’s Indigo were on pace to jump a clear round until an unfortunate rail at the last fence leaving them in ninth place for Friday’s class. Spooner (Agua Dulce, CA) and Show Jumping Syndication International’s Cristallo faulted at two fences for an eight fault total in round two.

Earlier in the day Spooner piloted Molly Ohrstrom’s Billy Bianca to a win in the Brabants Dagblad Prijs, out running the field by a full two seconds.

Kirsten Coe (Johnston, SC) heads into Sunday in 18th place on a score of 15 faults. While, Charlie Jayne (Elgin, OH) and Kent Farrington (Wellington, FL) are tied for 23rdplace in the overall rankings on 19 fault scores.

Michelle Spadone and Uwwalon (Kennett Square, PA) didn’t make it past Day 1, and Francie Steinwedell-Carvin (La Canada, CA) and Taunus were eliminated on Day 2.

The first round of the final competition in the 2012 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final gets underway Sunday at 2 p.m. CEST.

For orders of go and course charts, click here.

Results, Day 2, Rolex FEI World Cup Show Jumping Finals (April 20)

1. Monte Bellini, Philipp Weishaupt GER (Landgestüt Sachsen-Anhalt) 0/0 (33.04)

2. Carlina, Pius Schwizer SUI (Pius Schwizer, Francois Leiser) 0/0 (33.56)

3. Cornet Obolensky, Marco Kutscher GER (V.Nychyporenko, B&S Sportpferde) 0/0 (35.03)

4. Coriana van Klapscheut, Eric Lamaze CAN (Torrey Pines Stable, Artisan Farms) 1 (72.05)

5. Cortes C, Beezie Madden USA (Abigail Wexner) 4 (66.77)

6. Nino Des Buissonnets, Steve Guerdat SUI (Schwarzenbach Urs E) 4 (67.33)

7. Silvana *HDC, Kevin Staut FRA (Haras des Coudrettes) 4 (68.40)

8. Flexible, Rich Fellers USA (Harry and Mollie Chapman) 4 (68.69)

9. Indigo, Margie Engle USA (G.Garber, Gladewinds Farm, Hidden Creek) 4 (69.72)

10. Ornella Mail Hdc, Patrice Delaveau FRA (Haras des Coudrettes, Perron Pette) 4 (69.75)

11. VDL Groep Verdi, Maikel van der Vleuten NED (vd Vleuten&Team Nijhof&vd Oetelaar) 4 (70.08)

12. Quarco de Kerambars, Rik Hemeryck BEL (Suzanne Gagliani) 4 (70.14)

13. Wkd Pepperpot, Sameh El Dahan EGY (J. Sloan-Allen and Dr. S. El Dahan) 4 (71.13)

14. Aslan, Ljubov Kochetova RUS (Ljubov Kochetova) 4 (71.89)

15. Chaman Ludger Beerbaum GER (M. Winter-Schulze) 5 (72.19)

16. Regina Z, Harrie Smolders NED (H.Smolders&J.Verlooy) 8 (67.97)

17. Casall La Silla, Rolf-Göran Bengtsson SWE (Holst. Verband&R.G. Bengtsson 8 (68.51)

18. Copin van de Broy, Marcus Ehning GER (F.Schreiber) 8 (69.03)

19. Lennox, Luciana Diniz POR (A. & L. Diniz) 8 (69.24)

20. Abbervail van het Dingeshof, Denis Lynch IRL (Thomas Straumann) 8 (69.87)

21. Cristallo, Richard Spooner USA (Show Jumping Syndications Int’l) 8 (70.49)

22. Uceko , Kent Farrington USA (C.G. Farm) 9 (72.28)

23. Taunus, Francie Steinwedell-Carvin USA (Prentiss Partners) 12 (67.54)

24. Uraya, Charlie Jayne USA (Pony Lane Farm, M. Thatcher) 12 (69.12)

25. Cantaro 32, Ali bin Khaled Al Thani QAT (Qatar Armed Forces) 12 (69.81)

26. Titus, Edwina Tops-Alexander AUS (E.Tops-Alexander, Stal Tops) 12 (70.28)

27. Lascar 41, Benas Gutkauskas LTU (Gediminas Gutkauskas) 13 (74.26)

28. Combina, Kirsten Coe USA (Ilan Ferder) 13 (75.33)

29. Carisma, Emilie Martinsen DEN (EM Horses) 17 (74.12)

30. Hallmark Elite, Dermott Lennon IRL (Keonan Stables Ltd) Retired

31. Ducati , Pedro Junqueira Muylaert BRA (Muylaert & Gelpi) Retired

32. Kassini Jac, Ludo Philippaerts BEL (St.Dorperheide&L.Philippaerts) Retired

33. Special, Luiz Francisco de Azevedo BRA (J.M. Caldas Osorio) Retired

 

Complete Round 2 results, click here.
Cumulative results for Round 1 and Round 2, click here.

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