Italy's Piergiorgio Bucci and Hantano won the 6th qualifier of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Western European League 2024/2025-season in Madrid. Photo © FEI/Thomas Reiner.
Text © World of Showjumping
The sixth leg of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Western European League 2024/2025-season took place in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, with Piergiorgio Bucci (ITA) and Hantano (Quasimodo Z x Numero Uno) taking home the maximum twenty points after risking it all in a jump-off between thirteen horse-and-rider combinations.
Counting 13 obstacles and 16 efforts, the first-round track set by Javier Trenor (ESP) at IFEMA Madrid Horse Week saw thirteen out of the 40 pairs at start deliver a clear to join the deciding jump-off where only the top five managed to leave all the fences intact.
Bucci and the 12-year-old gelding Hantano secured the win after stopping the clock at 40.77 seconds, while Michael Pender (IRL) and HHS Los Angeles (Le Roi x Cavalier Royale) – the last pair out – gave it their best go, crossing the finish line in 41.42 to slot into second. Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) and Beauville Z N.O.P. (Bustique x Jumpy des Fontaines) completed the podium in third with a time of 41.48 seconds, followed by Marcus Ehning (GER) on DPS Revere (Hermes de Reve x Dobel’s Cento) in fourth in 42.54, and Max Kühner (AUT) aboard EIC Julius Caesar (Couleur Rubin x Cancara) in fifth in 45.70.
"My horse is amazing, fast and a winner," Bucci said about Hantano in a press release from FEI. Photo © FEI/Thomas Reiner.
“It’s an amazing feeling, I really like this show, I’ve often been placed here but never close to winning so I’m really happy," Bucci said in a press release from FEI. “My horse is amazing, fast and a winner! He has a funny style, but he’s really good and I hope we will have more wins!”
With the sixth of the fourteen legs of the WEL 2024/2025-season now completed in Madrid, the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ continues to another Spanish destination, La Coruña.
The top sixteen horse-and-rider combinations at each of the fourteen qualifiers earn points, with the best eighteen from the overall standings in the WEL qualifying for the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final held in Basel, Switzerland, in April 2025.
After the sixth Western European League-leg in Madrid, Kevin Staut remains on top of the overall standings with 49 points, while Richard Vogel (GER) sits second with 42, followed by Gregory Wathelet (BEL) and Steve Guerdat (SUI) on 36 points, and Robert Whitaker (GBR) as well as Marcus Ehning (GER) on 28 points.
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