AnkyLyon.JPGTriple Olympic champion Anky Van Grunsven of The Netherlands finished a long way ahead of the rest of the field when securing her second consecutive victory with Salinero in the 2009 FEI World Cup™ Dressage series at Lyon, France tonight.

The absence of her fellow-countryman, Edward Gal, after an unfortunate accident with Sisther de Jeu yesterday, left her clear favourite to top the scoreboard and she won with a comfortable margin of more than five percentage points over runner-up Monica Theodorescu from Germany riding Whisper.  Third place went to Denmark’s Nathalie Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Rigoletto whose indoor season debut on her home turf at Odense two weeks ago was spoiled by the gelding’s nervousness which led to their retirement during the Grand Prix.

Tonight however the 34 year old Danish Princess produced an excellent Freestyle to finish ahead of Dutchman Hans-Peter Minderhoud with Exquis Escapado.

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