Germany's Richard Vogel has been on flying form at the 2024-edition of CHIO Aachen and as the last of three competitions in the traditional Sparkassen Youngsters Cup for 7- and 8-year-old horses had been jumped on Saturday evening, it was the German rider that brought home the overall victory with the 8-year-old KWPN gelding Levi Noesar (Zirocco Blue x Baloubet du Rouet).
The pair finished second in the first of the three competitions, fifth in the second class, before going all the way to the top in Saturday's final at Soers. The pair flew around Saturday's 1.50m jump-off course to cross the finish line in 42.39 seconds, and hot on their heels were Great Britain's Ben Maher – fresh off his victory in the Allianz Prize – and the 8-year-old gelding Corlander (Cornet Colbert x Landfriese 2), who clocked a time of 42.93 seconds.
Canada's Erynn Ballard and the only 7-year-old mare Marieke Z Santa Rosa (Moncler van Overis x Chellano) impressed with a third place in Saturday's final, when crossing the finish line in 43.78 seconds in the jump-off that consisted of 17 horse-and-rider combinations.
In a press release from CHIO Aachen, Vogel spoke about the talented Levi Noesar and said: “He was schooled by Nina Piasecki before he came to me. He is jointly owned by Mario Piasecki and Patrick Mielnik. They then decided that on his way into top sport we would perhaps make a good match. I started riding him in December, but we consciously didn't take him to America with us, because we wanted to bring him on gently and so I didn't actually start competing with him until April.”
“We are, of course, delighted that he has jumped clear on all three days here in Aachen and winning the final was the icing on the cake," Vogel said.
As per tradition, the Sparkasse donated a special prize for the rider with the highest combined score from all three competitions in the Youngster Cup: A promising foal. This year it was a Rhineland-bred filly by Christian Ahlmann's stallion Dourkhan Hero Z out of a Canturo-dam, bred by Peter Chorus from Aachen.