At the end of August, the 17-year-old stallion Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z (Otangelo x Mr Blue, bred by Jonas Bellemans, owned by Stephex Stables and Scuderia 1918) was retired from the sport. A beautiful retirement ceremony during the 2025-edition of the Brussels Stephex Masters – with his rider Daniel Deusser, his grooms Marine Renaudet and Sean Lynch, breeder Jonas Bellemans and owner Stephan Conter all present – closed off Tobago's long and successful career.

With Germany’s Daniel Deusser, the little chestnut stallion won team silver at the 2019 Longines FEI European Championships in Rotterdam. In 2017, the pair won the CSI5*-W 1.60m Grand Prix in Oslo, while in 2018, they took the victory in the CSI5*-W 1.60m Grand Prix in Lyon and the CSI5*-W 1.60m Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ in Madrid. The year after, in 2019, the duo topped the CSI5*-W 1.60m Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ in Bordeaux. In 2020, the pair won the CSI4*-W 1.60m FEI Jumping World Cup™ in Riyadh, and in 2021, they took the top honours in the CSI5* 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, as well as in the CSIO4* 1.60m Grand Prix presented by JTWG, Inc. at the same venue.

Two of the biggest victories of Tobago’s career came in 2022; at The Dutch Master where he won the CSI5* 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix – one of the four Majors in the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping – and at the GC Prague Playoffs where he topped the CSI5* 1.65m Longines Global Champions Tour Super Grand Prix, after having won the CSI5* 1.60m Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of New York just two months prior. Other notable wins during Tobago’s career came in last year’s CSI5*-W Open Sires of the World in Mechelen, as well as in Brussels, Fontainebleau, Rome, Gothenburg, and Shanghai – to mention just a few.

Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z also topped the FEI WBFSH Breeders Ranking several times during his career.

With this photo special, we take one last look back at some of the many magic moments Tobago Z gave us through the years as we wish him a happy and well-earned retirement. 

All photos © Jenny Abrahamsson for World of Showjumping. No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.