Text © World of Showjumping

Dominique Hendrickx (BEL) and the 11-year-old gelding Vintadge de la Roque (Kannan x Galoubet A) won Wednesday's CSI2* 1.45m Ashford Farm Grand Prix at Sentower Park in Belgium. Out of the 79 horse-and-rider combinations that had qualified for the Grand Prix, a total of 14 pairs managed to clear the first-round track and joined the deciding jump-off. Despite the challenging weather conditions, Hendrickx managed to shave nearly a second off Pieter Clemens (BEL) and Icarus’ (Querlybet Hero x Skippy II) leading time of 38.43 – pushing them down to the runner-up position and taking home the win with a time of 37.80 seconds. 

"Last year, Vintadge won 1.50m classes in Knokke, Maubeuge and Brussels," the happy winner commented to World of Showjumping. "Now, we are taking it a bit slower with him, with the thought to build him up to be a real Grand Prix horse. But I have to say he came out of the Corona-lockdown really well.”

"My horses love it, they are happy to be at the show again," Hendrickx continued to explain about how it feels to be showing again. "Surely, it is different though, as we don't really know what to look forward to when it comes to bigger shows. I will do a few more 2* and 3* star shows now. I think it will be hard to get into the bigger shows when they get going again." 

When it comes to the venue at Sentower Park, Hendricx was full of praise. "Even with the Covid-19 restrictions, Sentower Park is a great place for organizing events. This is a great facility and we are lucky to have places like this in Belgium." 

Following Hendrickx in first and Clemens in second, Omer Karaevli (TUR) on the 15-year-old Roso Au Crosnier (Looping d'Elle x Odin de La Cense) placed third after clocking a time of 38.60 seconds in the jump-off. Frank Schuttert (NED) on the 11-year-old Lyonel D (Little Joe x Chacco Blue) took the fourth spot and the fifth place went to Jasmine Chen (TPE) on the 12-year-old Ninyon (Nintender x Careful).