Hamburg, Germany – The second qualifier of the Global Champions Tour, presented by CN and CN WorldWide, had a short, but exciting jump-off.

The enthusiastic Northern-German audience was presented with two spectacular rides at Klein Flottbek in Hamburg. Thomas Voss (GER) who was born in the neighbourhood of Hamburg, started with his 13-year old Leonardo B. The combination left all rails in place and stopped the clock at 48.35 seconds. “I am absolutely happy”, was his first reaction. His competitor in the jump-off was Dutchman Albert Zoer. He did not saddle Okidoki this time, as he did in Doha, Qatar. He showed young Sam in the arena. The 9-year old rode two rounds without faults, but did not maintain this level during the jump-off. A fault on the last fence counted for four penalty points. This ranked him second. The reigning World Champion Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum made a mistake with Checkmate in the second round and put her in third.

After two qualification shows in the GCT, the Swiss rider Steve Guerdat leads with 29 points, followed by Albert Zoer with 27 points. Third is Belgian rider Judy-Ann Melchior with 25 points.

The leg in Hamburg started with 48 participants in the first round. The 18 highest ranked riders started in the second round of which there were 12 participants without faults. Only Thomas Voss and Albert Zoer went over the fences without hitting anything. Voss’s achievement with Leonardo B is no lucky shot, we won many Grand Prix’s last year and not looking towards the Olympic Games. “Oh, everybody thinks about that right?”, says the modest rider, who calmly waits for what the German coach has to say.

Albert Zoer started the jump-off knowing he had to ride a clear round and faster to win. “Sam is a very fast horse with large gallops. Two time, the gelding slipped a little, and I knew then that I was behind in time” says the rider from the North of the Netherlands. To try and win, he rode extra fast on the long line towards the final fence, an oxer. A bad luck error set him €40,000 behind.

 

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