500,000 Euro Grand Prix in Wellington (USA)

“He’s green at this level, but we have high hopes for him,” said Richard Vogel after his victory with Gangster Montdesir. The ten-year-old Kannan son out of a Cornet Obolensky dam has been on a steep upward curve since the European Champion took over the reins. The bay Selle Français stallion previously had several stables, including with Jana Wargers, Karoline Sloth Kjaer (DEN) and Cian O’Connor (IRL). He was brought into the sport by the French rider Simon Lorrain.

The five-star Grand Prix, built by the course designer of the 2024 Olympic Games, Gregory Bodo, was attended by a number of prominent pairs. They were hot on the heels of Richard Vogel and his stallion, above all Kent Farrington with Greya, who only won the Rolex Grand Prix in Geneva in December. The US-American saddled his OS mare in Wellington for the first time since Geneva with a clear goal: to win. In the end, they had the best time in the jump-off, but collected a pole on the way. This cleared the way to victory for the European champion. With a clear round in 42.65 seconds, Vogel and Gangster Montdesir kept the competition at bay by three tenths of a second in the end.

Gangster Montdesir “highly motivated”, second place goes to Ben Maher

Vogel later said of his stallion: “I immediately had a great feeling about him. He always wanted to do a good job right from the first show. (…) When you have such a talented horse that moves up so quickly, you always have to find a balance – we want great evenings like tonight, but we never want to overtax the horse. At the moment he is highly motivated.”

The pair relegated the Olympic champion from Tokyo, Ben Maher, and the twelve-year-old gelding Enjeu de Grisien to second place. The time for the clear rounds in the jump-off was 42.95 seconds. The partnership between the two has been going on for some time, the British rider has had the Selle Français by Toulon-Andiamo under the saddle since he was seven years old. Maher: “He was always in the shadow of some other horses and has had to take a step out of that in recent months – he has taken on this role really well. He’s had a bit of bad luck here and there, but he’s a very bright, energetic horse and learns incredibly quickly. That’s his biggest strength; he really wants to be a great horse.”

One of last year’s shooting stars took third place in the jump-off in Wellington: France’s Nina Mallevaey with Dynastie de Beaufour. The 26-year-old rider won the five-star Grand Prix in Brussels last August with the 13-year-old mare. On Saturday evening it was 43.37 seconds for Mallevaey and her mare, who is a direct daughter of the stamp stallion Diamant de Semilly.

Other winners

Lillie Keenan delivered another clear round in the jump-off for the host nation USA with Argan de Beliard. Keenan finished fourth in 44.56 seconds ahead of Kent Farrington in fifth place.

René Dittmer, who, like Richard Vogel, spends most of the winter months in the sunny states of the USA, also competed in this test. With his top horse Corsica, he had one fault in the round and ended up in eleventh place. Simon Widmann gave up in the normal course.

All the results of the Grand Prix in Wellington can be found here.