Germany’s Marco Kutscher steered Cornet Obolensky to victory in the tenth qualifying leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Western European League series at Zurich, Switzerland.
The 13-year-old stallion produced an exhibition of effortless jumping to outclass the rest of the 40-strong field.
It was an emotional moment for the winning rider. “Two years ago my horse had a fall on the road here in Zurich and injured his foot - he was out of action for a year and when he came back to work we had to start again at zero,” Kutscher explained.
On his return to indoor jumping last season the stallion didn’t show anything like his usual form. “I often wondered if he would ever come back and be the same again - but today I got my answer!” said Marco.
“He’s in super form again now and this is my first time to win a big Grand Prix like this with him so it’s a very special day. Normally he’s not the fastest horse in the world, he gets a lots of chances in Grand Prix competitions but the result depends a lot on the jump-off track. He has a slow canter but a very big jump - today the course was perfect for him and I took a lot of risk in the turns because I know he can really jump anything," he added.
Ben Maher was the best of the Brits with Tripple X, but an unfortunate four faults in the jump-off left them in fifth place.
1, Cornet Obolensky (Marco Kutscher) GER 0/0 31.80; 2, Ornella Mail HDC (Patrice Delaveau) FRA 0/0 32.26; 3, Cevo Itot du Chateau (Edwina Tops-Alexander) AUS 0/0 32.76; 4, Napoli du Ry (Simon Delestre) FRA 0/4 31.19; 5, Tripple X (Ben Maher) GBR 0/4 31.26; 6, Winningmood (Luciana Diniz) POR 0/4 32.97; 7, Una Traviatta (Beat Mandli) SUI 0/4 33.46; 8, Kassini Jac (Ludo Philippaerts) BEL 1/69.36; 9, Regina Z (Harrie Smolders) NED 4/65.56; 10, Touchable (Claudia Gisler) SUI 4/66.07.
1. Rolf-Goran Bengtsson SWE - 77
2. Patrice Delaveau FRA - 60
3. Denis Lynch IRL - 54
4. Marco Kutscher GER - 53
5. Kevin Staut FRA - 53
6. Steve Guerdat SUI - 51
7. Pius Schwizer SUI - 48
8. Nick Skelton GBR - 48
9. Scott Brash GBR - 43
| 6:30pm | Farming Sunday |
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| 7:30pm | Equitrekking |
| 8:00pm | Wonder Dogs |
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