After winning the Olympic medal in London, it appears Germany can do no wrong in the eventing world as they once again stood at the top of the leaderboard – this time at the FEI World Cup Malmö, Sweden.
After dressage, all three members of the ground jury, which included our own Gill Rolton, agreed that Ingrid Klimke and Tabasco 70 should be in second place, while Clayton Fredericks and Bendigo (feeling fresh from London) sat in the number one spot. Clayton was also lying third on Brookleigh and fifth on Walterstown Don.
Cross-country day saw positions change a lot, with Ingrid moving into the lead after a faultless performance on the 12-year-old Trakehner gelding. The pair have clocked up some good performances lately including finishing third at Luhmuhlen this year in the CIC3*. Clayton, who was the only Australian representative at Malmö, enjoyed clear rounds with Walterstown Don and Brookleigh although time penalties with the latter saw him drop back down to tenth, while stablemate Walterstown Don moved up to second.
Overnight leader, Bendigo, picked up 20 penalties and some time and with two down in the show jumping phase Clayton had to be content with finishing mid-field.
Meanwhile Dirk Schrade and Hop and Skip were quietly moving up the leader board. Lying sixth on dressage day, the pair flew around the challenging cross-country course to pull up to fourth going into show jumping.
Only nine of the 36 riders who went forward to show jumping managed clear rounds and with scores tight at the top it was going to be essential to leave all the rails up. That said, Ingrid Klimke’s dressage mark of 42.6 did allow her to have one mistake in the show jumping and still hang onto her lead, and she finished the winner on a score of 46.6.
When Walterstown Don took a rail down he slipped back to finish fifth and Switzerland’s Felix Vogg, riding Maverick McNamara, dropped back from overnight third to seventh again due to one rail down. This allowed Dirk Schrade, who rode a beautiful clear round, to move into second place and Sara Algotsson-Ostholt (a member of the bronze medal-winning Swedish team) finished third riding Mrs Medicott.
The next leg of the FEI World Cup will be held 22 – 26 August in Le Pin au Hara.
