DANIEL DEUSSER & OTELLO DAZZLE IN VERONA
For the second time in his brilliant career, Germany’s Daniel Deusser galloped to victory in a thrilling jump-off at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup qualifier, sponsored by Kask, at Jumping Verona on Sunday evening the 9th of November.
Seven years ago he brought the Italian crowd to their feet with a breath-taking win with Calisto Blue, and tonight he did it again when second-last to go against the clock with the 11-year-old stallion Otello de Guldenboom. “Otello has plenty of confidence, he is very cool, he goes to the fence very easily, I just have to try and give him the right distance and today he did it all perfectly!”, Deusser said of the horse who was right on form after winning the opening day’s speed event.
Germany always looked mighty strong when Deusser was joined by compatriots Richard Vogel, reigning European champion, and Olympic champion Christian Kukuk in the seven-horse jump-off.
Final round
A mistake by Spain’s Armando Trapote and Tornado VS left the door wide open as the final round began, but then Emanuele Gaudiano sent the crowd into a frenzy when clear with Esteban de Hus in 37.54 seconds.
Vogel’s Cloudio clipped the vertical fourth fence and Norway’s Johan Sebastien Gulliksen’s Equine America Harwich VDL did the same but Kukuk made no mistake when resetting the target in 37.31 seconds with Just Be Gentle. He knew however he hadn’t done enough.
“I was already a little surprised when I was faster than Emanuele, but I really didn’t have my best jump-off. I struggled in the beginning to find my rhythm”, he said afterwards. “Daniel was already in the flow with his win in the class on Friday so I knew he would be very competitive”, he added.
And he was right, Otello completely focused as Deusser steered his determined path through the eight-obstacle track to stop the clock on 36.13 seconds which always looked difficult to beat. However, last into the ring, Switzerland’s Alain Jufer gave it a great shot with the 14-year-old Dante MM who looked under no pressure when breaking the beam in 36.92 to slot into runner-up spot and pin Kukuk back into third, while Gaudiano lined up in fourth.
Advantage
“Forty competitors and seven clear rounds was the perfect result in the first round”, Deusser pointed out. “We walked the jump-off course before the competition began and we all had one question, whether to take seven or eight strides to the Longines vertical which was still the fourth fence on the track. I thought I would do eight, but after fence two and three I was on a bit of a forward distance and I thought I have to try seven if I want to win!”
“Sometimes that’s the difference between winning or being unlucky or having one down or having half a second more on the scoreboard and finishing third or fourth! Today it all came up just right!”, said the 44-year-old double-Olympian. He was World Cup champion with the great Cornet d’Amour back in 2014 and he now plans to compete at three of the next four legs of the Longines series, at Stuttgart (Germany) next weekend, and at A Coruna (Spain) and his home show at Mechelen (Belgium) in December. A trip to the series Final in Fort Worth, Texas (USA) next April seems a real possibility.
Tonight’s result places him fourth on the Western European League leaderboard behind Britain’s Ben Maher in third place and The Netherlands’ Sanne Thijssen in second spot. Johan-Sebastian Gulliksen had to settle for seventh tonight, but he’s a happy man because with 25 points following the 15 he collected at the first of the 13 legs of the series on home ground in Oslo last month, he now heads the League table.
What they said at tonight’s Press Conference
Christian Kukuk, Germany third with Just be Gentle
“Just be Gentle had a bit of a long break since Barcelona, this was her first show and I was just schooling her for two days to have her calm because she’s a very sensitive and special mare, especially in this atmosphere. I was super-happy with her first round but still everything was about keeping her quiet and suddenly she had to go and she just wasn’t really ready for a jump-off today so in the I’m honestly very happy with the third place. She jumped amazing and that’s the most important thing. I can always improve, that’s how it is, but today third place was the best possible for me and I’m very happy with that!
I will give it another try next week in Stuttgart but that will be my last World Cup show in Europe. Third place was a good start so I might do one in America at the beginning of the year. It depends on whether I make some good points again next week – if I do I might go for it in America because the World Cup Final is also in America so it would be nice to be qualified!”
Alain Jufer, Switzerland second with Dante MM
“It’s a special day for me and my horse. I had a special feeling to finish second in a class with so many great riders with so much experience. I haven’t competed in many World Cup classes in my life but I knew I had to try without going too crazy tonight and it worked out great. I have Dante for seven years now and I know him really well, he’s my best horse now and he’s amazing!
Normally I would like to go to Stuttgart next week, at the moment I’m on the waiting list but I have a good chance now! I would like to try for some more points but we will see.”
--ENDS--
Full results here
Photo by FEI/Massimo Argenziano