Christian Kukuk Wins the Global Champions Tour Event in London; Steve Guerdat Takes the Title in Dublin
Olympic Champions Day at the Grand Prix events in London and Dublin
from Dominique Wehrmann 
Christian Kukuk and Checker have once again delivered, here at the Global Champions League event in St. Tropez.
Photo: GCT/GCL London was the tenth of 15 stops on the Global Champions Tour. Christian Kukuk had not yet qualified for the Super Grand Prix. The World Championship reserve made up for that today. He had brought his best horse to London, the 16-year-old Comme il faut son Checker, who has carried him not only to Olympic gold but also to countless other successes. Today was no exception. A total of 14 pairs had advanced to the jump-off for the London Global Tour Grand Prix. Kukuk and Checker were the tenth pair to enter the arena and impressively demonstrated just how well they work together. With a clear round in 42.14 seconds, they prevented a home victory by Scott Brash and Hello Folie (42.32).
Harry Charles and the 10-year-old OS stallion Ballypatrick Tiberius by Caligula—who had been brought into the top ranks of the sport by French eventing rider Gaspard Maksud and has been in the care of the Olympic team champion since the beginning of this year—secured third place, marking the second British podium finish (0/43.29). It was the pair’s first CSI5* Grand Prix.
Auffarth is on a roll
Speaking of eventing riders and show jumping—just a few weeks ago, it was announced that Sandra Auffarth had been“brought in” for the Global Champions League and is now strengthening the Valkenswaard United team. It was a good decision by the team management, as the Olympic eventing champion demonstrated today. Riding Quirici H, she was the third pair in the jump-off and took the lead with a time of 43.47 seconds. In the end, that time was good enough for fourth place. A huge success!
In doing so, she finished ahead of her German colleagues, including Maximilian Weishaupt on Zuccero (0/43.75) and Christian Ahlmann riding his promising young horse Untouched LB (0/43.81).
Incidentally, Henrik von Eckermann’s King Edward also made it to the jump-off, which was great to see. However, he knocked down two poles. Still, it looks as though the 16-year-old two-time 2022 world champion is slowly regaining his former form.
You can find all the results from London here.
Guerdat Wins the Classic
The Nations Cup tournament in Dublin is one of the traditional events on the competition calendar, and anyone who wasn’t competing in London rode here. Among them was Olympic champion Steve Guerdat, who had saddled his reliable Bamako de Muze son, Iashin Sitte, for both the Nations Cup and today’s Grand Prix. The chestnut had already cleared the course without touching a single rail in the Nations Cup, and today he left everything in the jump-off as well. On top of that, he was lightning-fast in his efficient style: 37.81 seconds. Not even Richard Vogel could beat that time, even though he gave it his all with Cloudio and even accepted a knockdown. The pair finished sixth, making them the top German duo, after Jörne Sprehe and Toys had already had a knockdown in the first round.
Second place went to Ireland’s Jordan Koyle on Chaccolino. Behind them, the Netherlands’ Arne van Heel and Keaton HV gave the Holsteiner Verband a reason to celebrate. The ten-year-old son of Kannan is increasingly emerging as the next Casall in competitive terms and also jumped a clear round today. Just at his last tournament, the CSI3* in Samorin, he had placed third in the 1.55-meter Grand Prix. But today’s result is his greatest success to date.
You can find all the results here.
