Martin Fuchs' Clooney 51 (Cornet Obolensky x Ferragamo) will get his official retirement ceremony at CHI Geneva on December 11 2022, before the Rolex Grand Prix – a class that the now 16-year-old gelding won back in 2019.
European champion in 2019, vice world champion in 2018, runner-up in the World Cup final in 2019 and winner of the Grand Prix of Geneva and Zürich, as well as of the World Cups in Basel and Lyon – Clooney 51 has an impressive record of achievements. With Martin Fuchs, the son of Cornet Obolensky – owned by Luigi Baleri – also jumped at the Olympic Games on two occasions – in Rio in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2021, and secured two team bronze medals for Switzerland at the European Championships in 2015 and 2017.
In mid-August 2021, Clooney had an unfortunate fall in the paddock and injured his shoulder – and his sporting career came to an abrupt end. Luckily, after two months in a clinic in Zürich, the gelding could return home to the Fuchs-family’s stable in Wängi, Switzerland. In May this year, Fuchs officially announced Clooney's retirement. Now, nearly one-and-a-half years after his accident, Clooney finally gets to take a final farewell with his many fans – with the curtains closing at CHI Geneva.
"Clooney is the horse of my life, an extraordinary being. He has given me so much and it is with him that I have had my greatest successes. His accident was a terrible ordeal for him and for all my team, but in the face of it he proved what strength of character he has. Today, he is well and he deserves to have a ceremony that reflects his fabulous career and the genius that he is. Geneva was an obvious choice, as we had one of our most beautiful moments here when we won the Rolex Grand Prix. I am very much looking forward to this farewell, which promises to be very emotional, and during which I will be surrounded by the great Geneva public, my family, my team and my friends," Martin Fuchs said in a press release from CHI Geneva.