From December 5 to 8, the world’s greatest riders will meet in the City of Light for the Longines Masters of Paris. Seven Olympic champions and most of the world’s top 12 will compete in front of the 50,000 expected spectators at the Paris-Villepinte track. No less than 350 star horse and ponies are also expected. This weekend, the Longines Masters of Paris will indeed be hosting the most prestigious stable in the world!
The indoor stars will shine
The fittest horses of the moment will obviously be there. In particular, Apart, on whom Pieter Devos, the Belgian rider and defending European team champion, won the Longines FEI World Cup in Stuttgart a few weeks ago. Another big name that Parisian spectators will have the chance to see this weekend is Jasmien vd Bisschop who, in combination with the German rider Daniel Deusser, excelled in late November in Prague. The European Champion and World Runner-up, Martin Fuchs of Switzerland, will be accompanied by The Sinner, the 2018 winner of the Power Lido Masters of Paris, then under the saddle of Denis Lynch from Ireland. Among the other star horses, Fleurette, the recent winner of the FEI World Cup in Washington DC, under the saddle of American Laura Kraut, is also expected in Paris. Other French horses who are particularly adept in indoor competition will also be competing in Paris. These include Sultane des Ibis, who with Félicie Bertrand in the saddle won the last Land Rover Grand Prix of the Longines FEI World Cup in Bordeaux. Then there’s Hermès Ryan, the horse with the huge leap, double winner with Simon Delestre in 2018 and 2019 of the Saut Hermès at the Grand Palais, and first in the Longines FEI World Cup in Lyon in 2017.
Last minute: Canadian Kara Chad, a student of champion rider Eric Lamaze, joins the Americas Riders Masters Cup team in place of American Lucas Porter. Young rider Bryan Balsiger of Switzerland, winner of the Longines FEI World Cup in Oslo last October, will join Christophe Ameeuw’s Riders Lab, which offers to a selected handful of promising young riders access to the Longines Masters Series tracks.
Who will accompany those champions?
The “medalist” horses will include among others MJT Nevados S, defending European Team Champion with the Belgian rider Grégory Wathelet, and Fine Lady 5, individual bronze medalist at the last Olympic Games, associated with Eric Lamaze of Canada, himself individual Olympic Champion in 2008. The 2012 Olympic Champion, Steve Guerdat of Switzerland, has chosen Evita to accompany him on the Longines Masters of Paris. She’s regularly ranked in the top five of the events in which she has competed since the Longines Masters of Lausanne last June, as well as Victorio des Frotards.
The reigning Olympic Team Champions, the French riders Penelope Leprévost, Roger-Yves Bost, Philippe Rozier and Kevin Staut, have respectively selected : Vancouver de Lanlore, Sangria duCoty, Prestige Kalone and Viking d’la Rousserie.
Pony Masters: stars and more stars!
There are some great pony champions expected on the track of the Longines Masters of Paris for the first edition of the Pony Masters on December 7 and 8. They include three reigning European Runner-ups, Ammanvalley Santino, Casino Royale and Elando van de Roshoeve, associated with the British riders Hannah Barker, Shaunie Greig and Claudia Moore, as well as a bronze medalist in the same championship, Quabar des Monceaux, under the saddle of the French rider Romane Orhant.
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