It was a popular Danish home victory for Anna Kasprzak in the Grand Prix at the 2015 CDI-W Odense on Saturday 17 October 2015. The audience stood up and cheered for the 26-year-old Dane as she and her 16-year-old companion Donnperignon danced their way to victory in the prestigious world dressage tournament which has now kicked off the winter season at Odense Horse Show.
Anna Kasprzak won ahead of the former world champion from the Netherlands, Edward Gal, and his partner Hans Peter Minderhoud. Anna and Donnperignon achieved 73.86% in a beautiful and harmonious programme where especially the horse’s wonderful passage and beautiful series of flying changes secured her a head start in the battle for victory in Odense this weekend.
"I am super happy because it went so well, and I hope it goes just as well tomorrow," said Anna Kasprzak after her victory. Anna won the World Cup freestyle in Odense back in 2013, and she would love to repeat the victory tomorrow Sunday. "It is a lovely show to ride at. Riding in front of a Danish crowd is a lot of fun and always creates a good atmosphere," she added.
Edward Gal and his second Grand Prix horse Voice (by De Niro) came close. With great excitement Kasprzak had followed the live scoring of Edward Gal’s ride, and during the 5 minutes of his ride Anna went through different emotions feeling nervous, excited and relieved.
Both Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud have competed several times in Odense with different horses. This time Minderhoud has brought along the breeding stallion Romanov, who was out competing for the first time in more than one year. They scored 73.32% in the Grand Prix and came third.
"We always begin the World Cup season in Odense. Today was my first show with Romanov since Aachen 2014, and therefore we still need some fine tuning, but all in all I am very pleased with him," Hans Peter Minderhoud commented.
The black stallion Voice is Edward Gal’s mount in Odense this year. Together they earned 73.38% which earned them a second place.
"Voice got very distracted today and when you do not have your horse as smooth as you want it, then the small mistakes start coming," said Edward Gal hoping that he will be able to nail it in the freestyle.
Related Links
Scores 2015 CDI-W Odense
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2015-2015 World Cup circuit