Text © World of Showjumping

Conor Swail (IRL) and Nadal Hero & DB (Kannan x Polydor) continued their winning streak when taking the top honours in Wednesday's 1.50m Prize of StädteRegion Aachen in memory of Landrat Hermann-Josef Pütz at CHIO Aachen. Coming fresh from victories at Spruce Meadows and Thunderbird Show Park in Canada, Swail and the 9-year-old stallion once again proved unbeatable. 

The two-phase class had 48 horse-and-rider combinations in it, and 23 of them delivered clear rounds. Coming in as start no. 38, Swail and Nadal Hero & DB set off in top gear for the second phase and flying down on seven strides on the last line they took the lead with the incredible time of 35.51 seconds. 

"I am on a great run of form, but my horses are amazing,” smiled the happy winner when speaking with World of Showjumping. “I have a great group of horses, and thankfully at the moment they are all healthy and in good form so I am really enjoying myself at the minute.”

"This guy is just new to me, I got him in December, from James Peeters in Belgium,” Swail said about Nadal Hero D&B – who is out of Taloubet Z’s mother Krista and by the famous Kannan. “Nadal Hero D&B is quite inexperienced and green, and he has a long way to go actually – he still has a lot to learn. He knows how to run and jump though, he is very careful, he is brave, and he is fun to ride. While we learn to do things a bit better, we're still able to be competitive and win classes. Yesterday, in the schooling class, he was a bit inexperienced and nervous actually, so it was good to be able to go in and ride him for 10-15 minutes to get him settled down and today he was flying – he felt so good!”

“I had a good plan; I saw the few guys who were in the lead and I knew what I had to do there,” Swail said about his lightning fast second phase. “Once I rolled back where the second phase started I wanted to get nine [strides] there, which was a little far for most horses, and I got that, and I had wide eleven to the double, then nice nine and then I wanted to get seven home. It worked out well, he is fast, he runs, even when you are trying to balance him he is running forwards so it makes him very quick. I am really happy to start this way, this is my first time in Aachen, so I am delighted that the first class we show in we get a win. I hope the week continues like this and if it doesn’t, I will have had a good week anyway!"

"For the Grand Prix I am hoping for Count Me In, he is here to do the two big classes to qualify, and hopefully we will have a good run on Sunday, he is in good form also," Swail said. 

Coming in towards the very end of the class, Wilm Vermeir (BEL) – the winner of the Prize of Handwerk – gave Swail's time to beat a good shot but slotted into temporary second aboard Enola Gay Of Two Notes Z (Emerald van't Ruytershof x Chin Chin) with a time of 35.81. However, as next in the ring, Roger Yves Bost (FRA) and Bluemuch des Baleines (Chacco-Blue x Clinton)  – that took the top honours in Tuesday's opening 1.45m – crossed the finish line only 0.20 seconds behind Swail, pushing Vermeir down to third, Harry Charles (GBR) on Borsato (Contendro I x Nijinski) to fourth and Marlon Modolo Zanotelli (BRA) on Harwich VDL (Arezzo VDL x Darco) to fifth.