Thursday morning, Oct. 31st, the FEI Dressage World Cup got underway at the Longines Equita Lyon, Concours Hippique International, the first of four FEI World Cup stages to be held at the event this year. The world’s top riders battled it out in the Grand Prix presented by CRE-ARA in the arena at Lyon-Eurexpo. It ended with another victory for the queen of the discipline, Germany’s Isabell Werth, riding DSP Quantaz, a second for Sweden’s Patrik Kittel riding Touchdown, and an extremely fine third place for France’s Pauline Basquin on Sertorius de Rima Z IFCE. This popular Olympic pairing had the spectators in Versailles dancing to the sounds of Alors on Danse (So, let’s dance) by Stromae during their freestyle routine.
Werth knows the FEI Dressage World Cup arena at Lyon by heart. Indeed, this living legend of equestrian sports has already won six times in Lyon in front of an audience that just loves the way she rides. On the back of her seventh Olympic title, which she won this summer in the gardens of the Château de Versailles, the German lived up to her reputation, setting the bar very high right from the start. With a score of 76.457%, she finished first in this inaugural class, well ahead of one of her main rivals, Sweden’s Patrik Kittel riding Touchdown, with whom he won the FEI World Cup Final in Riyadh last April.
“Naturally, I’m very pleased,” said Werth. “Here in Lyon, DSP Quantaz was making his big comeback in an indoor competition, which can sometimes make him nervous. But today, he was very relaxed. And I have to admit that it was one of his best tests. I hope I can keep him in this state of mind for the Grand Prix Freestyle to Music. There should be even more spectators around the track, and the atmosphere will no doubt be even more electric than it was today, so we’ll see… ”
She spoke about her love of France – and the love affair is clearly reciprocal, even though the German rider was overtaken on the “clap-o-meter” by France’s new national darling, the Cadre Noir de Saumur rider Pauline Basquin, who finished third in this competition, while beating her personal record with Sertorius de Rima Z IFCE.
Basquin commented, “I’m really happy. Sertorius hasn’t competed for three months now. He was really responsive. But I like it when he’s like that. In the arena, he was more composed and very attentive. So, I’m very pleased. And it’s not so bad when you beat your record on the first time back in competition, which really bodes well for the rest of the season.
“When I entered the arena, I could feel that the spectators were really behind me, after their fantastic support during the Olympic Games this summer. I think we’ll have to try and calm them down tomorrow, when we perform our freestyle to music routine to Stromae’s music (laughs)!
“I have to admit that I was quite stressed today. I’m usually pretty cool-headed, but after all the buzz on the internet this summer, I really wanted to make sure I didn’t disappoint the French crowd.”
FEI World Cup Dressage Grand Prix presented by CRE- ARA
1. Isabell Werth (GER) & DSP Quantaz – 76.457%
2. Patrik Kittel (SWE) & Touchdown – 74.935%
3. Pauline Basquin (FRA) & Sertorius de Rima Z IFCE – 74.761%
Full results here.
~ with files from Eloïse Lépine
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