The Spanish 2014 WEG team rider Borja Carrascosa Martinez won the 58th Hamburg Dressage Derby held during the 2016 CDI Hamburg in Klein Flottbek in Hamburg, Germany, on 6 - 8 May 2016. The Krefeld based Spaniard was the high scorer in the highly popular finals with horse change on Sunday afternoon 8 May 2016.
The Hamburg Dressage Derby consists of three rounds: a Grand Prix class followed by the Grand Prix Special. The three highest scoring riders of the combined scores of the Grand Prix and Special qualify for the Finals which consists of the finalists riding each other's horses in a short Grand Prix class.
Normally the three finalists were supposed to be Borja Carrascosa, Michelle Hagman and Hubertus Schmidt. Schmidt competed in the Grand Prix with two horses, Hedelunds Mefisto (by Michellino) and Dong Seon Kim's Stella Pack Ganda (by Celtic SPM x Gluckspilz). He won the Grand Prix on Mefisto with 72.320 % and placed third on Ganda with 70.180%.
Hubertus had opted for Ganda as the Derby horse and rode the Special with her, but got eliminated for blood on the right flank in the spur area. With Mefisto, who had just returned from an injury and for whom the derby finals would be too strenuous, he rode and won the Kur to Music with 77.000%. Because the kur does not count for the Hamburg Dressage Derby process and as he withdrew Ganda from the Derby Finals, the Hamburg show organisation also disqualified both horses from the Grand Prix results list. Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and her Danish bred mare Fabienne (by Future Cup x Rubinstein) replaced Schmidt as third highest scoring pair in the two Derby rounds.
Carrascosa was on excellent form at the CDI Hamburg from the start. Aboard Joan Planas' 14-year old Hanoverian mare Wonder (by Waterford x Regazzoni x Watzmann x Akzent II) he was second in the Grand Prix with 70.940% and won the Grand Prix Special with 73.059%. The Grand Prix was won by Hubertus Schmidt on Swedish Michelle Hagman finished second in the Special aboard the 11-year old Hanoverian mare Happiness (by Hochadel x Walt Disney) with 73.020%. German Bernadette Brune landed third place on her 12-year old Hanoverian Lights of Londonderry (by Londonderry x Weltmeyer) with 70.922%.
The three Derby finalists -- alll three non-German but living in Germany -- put their best foot forward on the three mares but it was Borja Carrascosa who rode himself in the money and won the prestigious Derby finals with a total score of 217.234 points. The 34-year old rider, who is vying for a Spanish Olympic team spot on Wonder, scored 73.382% on Happiness, 72.059% on his own Wonder and 71.794% on Fabienne.
Michelle Hagman became the runner-up in the Finals with 213.264 points, while Nathalie zu Sayn Wittgenstein was third with 212.736%.
The best scoring horse in the Derby Finals was Hagman's Happiness, who is owned by Hans Rueben. She totalled 221.206 points with her three different riders. Wonder placed second with 211.235 points and Fabienne was third with 210.794 points.
Photos © LL-foto
Related Links
Scores: 2016 CDI Hamburg
Borja Carrascosa Obtains Ride on Wonder as Rio Olympic Hopeful
