Text © World of Showjumping
On Saturday, the Diriyah Equestrian Festival in Riyadh (KSA) concluded its second and last week with the CSI5*-W Big Tour Final – a 1.60m Grand Prix presented by SAOC. The course set by the Italian mastermind Uliano Vezzani proved to be challenge.
Jos Verlooy (BEL) on Varoune (Verdi TN x Cardalme), Christian Kukuk (GER) on Checker (Comme Il Faut x Come on) and Abdullah Alsharbatly (KSA) on Quilando (Quintender 2 x Landadel) all picked up a time-fault in the first round, and in the end five horse-and-rider combinations out of 23 cleared their way into the jump-off.
Against the clock, Philipp Weishaupt (GER) and Coby (Contagio Z x Escudo) took home the win with a time of 35.38 seconds while their compatriot Daniel Deusser on Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z (Tangelo v Zuuthoeve x Mr. Blue) took the runner-up position with the smallest of margins when the clock stopped on 35.44.
"Coby is a machine," the happy winner commented to World of Showjumping. "I have him now for one and a half years. He is such a competitive horse, I can bring him into any class: Big class, speed class... He is some horse."
"The last two weeks here have been an experience I for sure never had in my life, with such ups and downs," Weishaupt continued. "I fell off in both of the World Cup classes, from two different horses. In the World Cup class last week, I fell off Coby and came back winning the Grand Prix the day after. This week, I fell off Asathir on Friday during the jump-off in the World Cup and won today with Coby. I think this doesn't happen so often... We came to Saudi Arabia and did not know what to expect. I have never met such friendly, welcoming people as here – we had the best hosts. We had an unbelievable time; Ramzy Al Duhami and his team did an incredible job. We are thankful for him and the whole country for having us."
Kevin Staut (FRA) on Tolede de Mescam Harcour (Mylord Carthago x Kouglof II) placed third and Vladimir Tuganov (RUS) on Suspens Floreval (Clinton x Damiro B) fourth, while Marcus Ehning (GER) on Calanda (Calido I x Chasseur I) had to settle for the fifth spot after one fence came down in a time of 36.77 seconds.