The Netherlands’ Jeroen Dubbeldam broke the German stranglehold on the 2010/2011 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series when delivering a sensational victory in Verona, Italy this afternoon.  German riders dominated at the first three legs at Oslo (NOR), Helsinki (FIN) and Lyon (FRA) so far this season, but the flying Dutchman set an impossible target when second to go in today’s thrilling 10-horse jump-off and couldn’t be caught despite the best efforts of the world-class field that followed him. 

His winning margin was a narrow one however as Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, winner with Checkmate just a week ago in Lyon, came dangerously close to making it a back-to-back double with a superb performance from the 17 year old Shutterfly who was only fractionally slower against the clock.  And Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Casall La Silla finished third in the star-studded line-up.  Dubbeldam was crowned Olympic champion in Sydney (AUS) in 2000, Michaels-Beerbaum’s many successes include three Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping titles and, most recently, team Jumping gold at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky, USA, while Bengtsson took individual silver at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  Also in the top ten today were Carsten-Otto Nagel (4th) who was a member of that German gold medal winning side last month, Ireland’s billy Twomey (5th) who finished individually 11th in Kentucky, and the man who continues to wear the Rolex armband as No. 1 Rider in the World Rankings, Kevin Staut from France (6th).  This truly was a line-up of champions.

THE RIGHT BALANCE
Course designer, Rolf Ludi from Switzerland, found the right balance with his first-round track that reduced the jump-off list to one-quarter of his 40 original starters.  The bogey fences were the double at fence six and the triple combination at fence 11 – the first element of the former claiming a number of victims but the middle element of the latter – an oxer with water-tray – proving even more influential.  It was the first element of the triple combination that put four faults on the board for Germany’s Marco Kutscher and Cornet Obolensky – the stallion however showing himself to be right back on form on only his second outing after a long break.

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