Edited press release from Longines Pfingst Turnier

Ireland's Michael Pender and the 13-year-old gelding HHS Calais (Cavalier Royale x Obos Quality) took the top honours in Sunday's CSI4* 1.55m Preis des Hessischen Ministerpräsidenten at the Longines Pfingst Turnier in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Five of the 32 horse-and-rider combinations at start cleared the first-round track to make it to the jump-off, where Pender guided HHS Calais to the win with a time of 42.83 seconds – four seconds faster than second-placed Koen Vereecke (BEL) on the 10-year-old mare Oilily de Muze (Vigo D'Arsouilles x Ramiro Z). David Will (GER) came closest to Pender with a time of 42.98 seconds, but had to see a pole fall aboard Kansall (Kannan x Casall) and ended up third in this class counting for the Longines Ranking Group C.

“I knew David would come after me and he is always fast. I had to perform,” Pender said about his jump-off tactics.

“Of course the mistake was kind of annoying, but Kansall is a relatively new horse for me so I'm still very happy with the result. He played along really well,” home-hero Will commented.

With less than ideal weather conditions, the riders had an extra challenge in the big grass ring in Wiesbaden. “It rides better than it looks from the outside. Everyone is putting in a lot of effort here and we were able to ride really well against the clock in the jump-off. That’s why we’re very positive about tomorrow too,” Will said about the surface in the main ring. 

Being Irish, Pender was not worried about the conditions or the weather. “I have to say, it’s a brilliant show. It’s my first time here, but I will definitely come back,” he said.

“It was very exciting, great sport and in fact: When David Will came at the end, you thought, now someone can be faster,” said Ingmar Jung – minister for agriculture, environment, viticulture, forestry, hunting and homeland in Hessen – about the jump-off. “But then he had one down. It was super exciting.”