U.S. rider Kent Farrington seized a dramatic victory against a world class field at the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Hamburg (Germany), presented by H&M.
The American champion’s defiant win at the famous grass arena in Hamburg shook up the overall championship ranking after Leg 5 and left Luciana Diniz in the No. 1 spot. Farrington described his win as “fantastic” and he has shot up to No. 4 in the ranking. Fellow U.S. rider Lauren Hough claimed ninth with 4 faults in Round 1 and a clear go in Round 2 aboard Ohlala.
An extremely tough first round course by Frank Rothenberger saw top combinations drop out of the running including Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos, who were consequently knocked off the top of the ranking by Diniz. In the first round it was the double combination with two tricky and delicate verticals that caused most of the headaches.
“These shows always have the best riders and the top horses so it’s always a difficult competition at a Global Champions Tour event. Here in Germany I found the first round to be pretty big and difficult, the last line being a double of verticals, that’s always hard to jump, particularly at the end of a course,” Farrington said.
“I started working with Voyeur about three years ago—he’s got a lots of blood, he’s a very highly strung horse and he’s naturally very fast and with a spectacular canter,” Farrington said. “These kind of fields really suit him when I can gallop and he has speed.”
Despite the difficulty level there were some clear rounds including Farrington, Pius Schwizer and Amira, Hans-Dieter Dreher and Embassy II, Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Casall, Nicola Philippaerts on H&M Forever D Arco Ter Linden, Philipp Weishaupt on Chico and local girl Janne-Friederike Meyer on Goja exciting the home crowd. All fought through to the jump-off with impressive double clear rounds.
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Tens of thousands of fans crammed into the grandstands and took up every inch of the Derby grass banks to watch the highest level of show jumping.
The pressure was on H&M team rider Philippaerts but the young star delivered his third clear round of day, finishing in 50.96 seconds. Weishaupt hit the accelerator on Chico since the 10-year-old bay is at home on the big grassy arena, and came home in 49.22 seconds. Swedish champion Bengtsson executed a stylish clear on his champion stallion Casall but finished fractions of a second off Weishaupt’s pace.
After Dreher had 4 faults the pressure was on for the three remaining riders.
Farrington took no prisoners and, fresh from successes at the Longines Global Champions Tour of Shanghai, he galloped home clear in 48.97 seconds. Popular hometown rider Meyer gave it her best shot but could not beat Kent’s time.
“Winning is always great, we’re all competitors, that’s why we’re here,” Farrington said. “All of us have a fantastic life doing what we love, working with horses.”
Weishaupt was competing in his first GCT event of the year. “With Chico it’s much easier in a big grass field here in Hamburg than it is in a small arena,” he said. “He loves the grass fields. I’m really happy with how he’s gone here, I can’t ask anything more from him, he jumped three really good clear rounds, I don’t think he touched a single pole in the ring today and to be beaten by Kent Farrington on Voyeur is not total shame, so I’m actually really happy how everything went.”
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Phillip Weishaupt on Chico. Photo by Stefano Grasso/Longines GCT
Chico’s owner and breeder, Madeleine Winter-Shulze, was particularly thrilled with the result. “She came after the jump off directly to the warm-up ring. She tried to speak but she couldn’t really because she was crying,” Weishaupt said. “It’s one thing when you buy a horse and you own it, it’s great, but when you breed a horse, and have it the whole way. She has been with him from the young horse classes as a 4-year-old and now the whole way up to be in Hamburg for the Global Champions Tour amongst these riders, for sure it’s really great for her and I’m really happy for her.”
Diniz is now on top of the overall Longines Global Champions Tour series ranking with 125 points as the circuit moves to the sixth leg in Cannes, France on June 11-13. Pius Schwizer is hot on her heels on 110 points, Scott Brash is in third on 105 points and Kent Farrington moves into fourth position on 92 points setting up a clash of the titans of show jumping on the French Riviera.
“First of all I want to say what Kent said before about the fantastic destination, we are very lucky to be doing what we love, we love the horses, they are our life,” Diniz said. “I must say I want to thank my whole team, they are there, Edouard [de Rothschild], the owner of Winningmood, even my whole team from at home, my ladies team, my son, they give me support and inspiration to be here and as I said, I am in a very happy position right now, I have lovely horses, I have lovely people around me and I do what I love, so it’s just great.”
You can read more about Farrington and Voyeur’s win in the June 8 print edition of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.
