DANIEL DEUSSER DAZZLES AS NEW CHAMPION OF THE ROLEX GRAND PRIX OF LA BAULE
In a fiercely challenging course designed by France’s 2024 Paris Olympics Course Designer Grégory Bodo, only eight riders out of a roster of renowned showjumping champions managed to deliver a clear round and qualify for the highly anticipated jump-off at the Rolex Grand Prix Ville de La Baule.
Tension and excitement built as each favoured horse and rider combination navigated the course only to carry faults against 14 fences—each contested before a highly animated and vocal crowd. Prominent contenders such as the 2024 winner and current World number one, Kent Farrington, riding Greya, carried more than four faults. Other expected top contenders, including Brazil’s Yuri Mansur—winner of the 2025 Rolex Grand Prix of Rome—and Ireland’s star Cian O’Connor, retired prematurely. Additional retirements followed, with Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat, France’s Philippe Rozier, and Belgium’s Abdel Said, who took a wide jump at the Rolex triple combination before the final fence.
As the competition progressed, most fences proved challenging, with only the wall and the Rolex combination seeming less troublesome. Some riders missed the water jump, while others knocked down the verticals, including the skinny and Moulin Rouge fences.
The eight riders who advanced to the jump-off with zero faults were: Brazil’s Pedro Veniss on Nimrod De Muze Imperio Egipcio, Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann on Minute Man, the USA’s Mclain Ward on Imperial HBF, Great Britain’s Scott Brash on Hello Folie, Italy’s Riccardo Pisani on Chatolinue PS, Germany’s Richard Vogel on Levi Noesar and Daniel Deusser on Otello De Guldenboom, and Colombia’s flamboyant René Lopez Lizarazo on Londina.
Veniss set the pace with a clear round in 39.77 seconds. Von Eckermann, with eight faults, completed his round in 43.62 seconds. Brash aimed for speed but knocked down a fence, finishing in 40.91 seconds. Mclain Ward then demonstrated finesse, sailing through the course with ease and coming home in 39.17 seconds.
Pisani and Vogel both incurred faults, while Lizarazo, riding with boldness, charged through his round in 38.36 seconds, initially seeming poised for victory.
Finally, Deusser entered the arena and, with apparent ease, cleared the course in 37.22 seconds, earning €165,000 in prize money and pushing Ward into third place and Lizarazo into second.
The upcoming European leg of the Rolex Series will be held in Falsterbo, Sweden, on July 13th, 2025.
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See full results here