WITH world number one Anky van Grunsven sidelined through back injury, new Dutch starlet Adelinde Cornelissen cruised to grand prix victory at Olympia CDI-W last night.
Adelinde scored 75.75% on Parzival to beat British hope Laura Bechtolsheimer into second on Mistral Hojris. Adelinde and her family’s 11-year-old gelding are current Dutch champions and stood favourites here having beaten Anky at Stockholm CDI-W last month.
Laura scored a British international grand prix record here last year — 75.33% — with Mistral Hojris, and managed 74.88% with an expressive test last night.
“I am absolutely thrilled with the way it went in front of my home crowd. He gave me a stirling performance, so I couldn’t be happier with him,” said Laura after her test.
Listen to Laura Bechtolsheimer’s interview in full
Crowd favourites Kyra Kyrklund of Finland and Max took third, while Carl Hester and Liebling II were sixth with 67.67%. Carl rode a careful, quiet mistake-free test having only ridden the gelding since September, and will have more in the tank for this evening’s World Cup qualifier kür.
Richard Davison made an impressive grand prix debut on the Countess of Derby’s nine-year-old Artemis for 10th place. With plenty of encouragement from his jockey, Artemis handled the atmosphere and proved himself a very exciting prospect.
Fellow Brits Jodie Lister and Nicky were drafted in at the last minute to replace Nicola McGivern (Active Walero), who is suffering with gastric flu. The pair finished 13th.
Tonight’s qualifier starts at 8pm and is being shown live on Eurosport 2, with all four Brits through.
www.olympiahorseshow.co.uk
Stay in touch with all the action from Olympia throughout the show on Horseandhound.co.uk and don’t miss H&H’s dressage report in the 25 December issue (on sale 23 December)
