Marlon Modolo Zanotelli and Charly Heart Win the St. Tropez-Gassin Grand Prix

For the past three years, Charly Heart—a daughter of Cornet Obolensky bred in Norway—has belonged to Ashford Farm, which employs Brazilian rider Marlon Zanotelli as well as Jana Wargers. It was Wargers who primarily rode the gray mare when she was seven and eight years old. In 2024, Marlon Zanotelli took the reins of a superbly trained horse that just needed a little fine-tuning. This season, the mare won her first 1.60-meter Grand Prix back in February in Doha, and today she went one better.

With tight turns and despite a slight detour on the final stretch—which likely cost them a few tenths of a second—Charly Heart and Marlon Zanotelli overtook the pair that had been in the lead up to that point in the jump-off for the St. Tropez-Gassin Grand Prix, Mark McAuley (IRL) and Rossi vd Heffinck, and took the lead.

Zanotelli had two more nerve-wracking moments. And they were truly nerve-wracking, because the next rider—Julien Epaillard—was not only a Frenchman riding on home-field advantage but also the rider who is every competitor’s nemesis in every jump-off. He was riding the beautiful Belgian gray Le Coultre de Muze by Presley Boy. The pair were fast, but had one knockdown.

Now it was up to France’s master trainer Marc Dilasser and Arioto de Gevres to secure a home victory after all. But it wasn’t to be here either. The dream came to an end right at the first obstacle in the sands of St. Tropez.

This made Marlon Zanotelli and Charly Heart the clear winners, while Mark McAuley took second place riding Rossi vd Heffinck, a nine-year-old son of the Belgian stallion Diamant de Semilly.

The King Is Back on Top

The third-place finisher also had reason to celebrate—not because of the young players’ performance, but because of the showing by his longtime partner. We’re talking about the 2022 doubles world champions, Henrik von Eckermann and King Edward.

For months after the incident at the 2024 Olympic Games, where von Eckermann fell, nothing more had been heard from the 16-year-old son of Edward. It wasn’t until this year that Henrik von Eckermann began carefully rebuilding the chestnut horse’s training regimen. He started with 1.10-meter jumps and proceeded step by step.

Now King Edward is back where he belongs: at the front. His first major tests in the Global Champions Tour stages ended with faults every time. Today, however, all the poles stayed up. Eckermann didn’t take any risks, though; he preferred to accept two time faults in the first round and took it easy in the jump-off as well. Thanks to the other riders’ mistakes, he still managed to finish in third place.

Van Tastic’s Performance

Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann should also be pleased. She had saddled the nine-year-old Mecklenburg horse Van Tastic (by Van Halen Z) for the Grand Prix; he is just beginning to be introduced to major competitions and already demonstrated in the first round today that he is more than a match for them in every respect. They incurred only two time penalties in the first round. In the jump-off, they had one knockdown. Nevertheless, finishing in tenth place, they were the top German pair.

Richard Vogel and Gangster Montdesir had already had a knockdown in the first round, as did Marcus Ehning and Priam du Roset.

You can find all the results here.

Tomorrow, the riders and horses will have a more relaxed day. On Sunday, they’ll be competing for the final points in the League of Nations. You can find more information here.