Totilas wins World Cup Final

29
Mar
2010

Totilas was back on form for the World Cup Final

The Netherlands' Edward Gal and the super-stallion Moorlands Totilas overcame all the pressure and tension to claim the 25th anniversary FEI World Cup Dressage title in s'Hertogenbosch with 89.98% in the grand prix freestyle to music.

The Gribaldi breeding stallion was tipped to take the honours throughout the 2009/2010 season until fellow-Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen took advantage of an edgy test from her team-mate to win the preliminary grand prix with a great performance from Jerich Parzival on 25 March. For the first time in a long while their dressage reign began to look vulnerable.

Gal and Totilas however recovered their composure for the freestyle, strutting their way to victory by a margin of almost seven percentage points - "when I came into the arena I thought it could be better - and it was!" said the relieved 40 year old rider who clinched the trophy for the Netherlands for the tenth time.

Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival were once again forced to settle for second with 82.85% while Imke Schellekens-Bartels and Hunter Douglas Sunrise rode into third place on 82.15% to make it a Dutch one, two, three, the only combinations to break the elusive 80% barrier.

Cornelissen and Parzival set the bar, and the chestnut gelding's easy elevation, natural rhythm and powerful movement was complemented by a creative new routine that particularly highlights his athleticism in pirouette. However Cornelissen admitted afterwards that she had only practised the routine once before today's competition, and that her mistake in the one-tempi changes, when Parzival simply stopped executing them, was entirely her own. "It was quite a risk, I kept thinking about where I was in the test and I stopped asking him to do the changes so he stopped doing them, but then I remembered again and he continued - it wasn't his fault, it was completely mine," she insisted. However she finished with a dramatic flourish when following a canter pirouette to the right with another to the left and her score of 82.85% put her well out in front.

Isabell Werth's settled and accurate test from Warum Nicht left the German double World Cup champion temporarily in runner-up spot with a mark of 79.85% but she was immediately demoted by The Netherlands' Imke Schellekens-Bartels whose elegant mare, Hunter Douglas Sunrise, has been performing at her very best this season. "She was so good and so loose, she has never felt better and I am so happy - she has been in the best form life this year" the rider said.

In the final, Totilas was much more concentrated and began with extended trot that displayed all of his trademark extravagance. "I could feel it was going to be better, and in the middle of the test I started to breathe again and it was much more relaxed" he said afterwards. He sets such high standards for himself and this horse that nothing less than excellence will do - "that's part of the pressure of riding him," he explained later. As his mark of 89.80% went up on the board however he knew he had done more than enough - the 2009/2010 FEI World Cup™ Dressage title was safely in his hands.