Grand Prix in Bordeaux

Heros Z is the four-legged partner who once again proved that he is in top form with Michael Jung after Leipzig in Bordeaux. The Olympic eventing champion has been in the saddle on the bay for some time now and brought him into international sport in 2023. The nine-year-old Zangersheide gelding by Hotspot, bred by Peter Hofmann, had already placed in the World Cup jumping competition yesterday with five penalty points. Now he has gone one better.

Jung and Heros Z were the penultimate starters in the seven-rider jump-off. The time Victor Bettendorf from Luxembourg and Encore Toi du Linon had to beat was 34.47 seconds. And all the poles had to remain down. The German pair set off straight away in the manner we have come to expect from Olympic champions: with plenty of flow and minimal impact. Until the third jump, which they had to get. The turn was not ideal, Jung had to stop. But Heros Z reacted well, made himself small and then jumped off explosively enough to avoid a mistake. Jung then continued to ride on the attack. Always moving forward, Heros Z let himself fly over an oxer. The turn onto the double combination was ideal, so that nothing rattled here either. Two more jumps, an oxer and the final steep jump on a longer line also went smoothly and without Jung having to take his gelding back again. Nevertheless, the clock showed 35.3 seconds, 83 hundredths of a second slower than Bettendorf.

Martin Fuchs now victorious after a slight mistake in the World Cup

The audience in Bordeaux was now waiting for just one more pair. And that was Martin Fuchs and Conner Jei, who had to accept one more fault in yesterday’s tight time in the normal course of the World Cup show jumping competition. Everything finally fell into place in the Grand Prix. In the end, the experienced 15-year-old Holsteiner by Connor and his rider from Switzerland took another 15 hundredths of a second off the runner-up (34.32 seconds).

However, this is unlikely to have dampened Victor Bettendorf’s spirits. For his twelve-year-old mare Encore Toi du Linon, it was only the second ever show jumping competition over these dimensions.

Heros Z therefore has something in common with her, as it was also the second 1.60 meter jumping competition of his life for him after the World Cup in Leipzig. Finishing in third place is the nine-year-old gelding’s greatest sporting success to date, underpinning his place with Michael Jung in the perspective squad. No other German pairs competed in the Bordeaux Grand Prix.

The complete results are available here.