Jordi Domingo and Sonata DSH on Song at 2019 CDI Segovia

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2019 CDI Segovia

The heat was on and the battle was tough in the big tour classes at the 2019 CDI Segovia in Spain on 10 - 12 May 2019. Three different combinations moved into the winner's circle in the three rounds, but Jordi Domingo and his rising star Sonata DSH proved to be on song and made the strongest impression overall at Grand Prix level.

For Spanish Grand Prix rider and horse dealer Jordi Domingo the wait has been long for him to find a new partner that could bring himself back on the Spanish Grand Prix team since the passing of his top Prestige, which took him to the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong He came close with the rising star Wonder, but owner Joan Planas Gifra allocated the ride to Borja Carrascosa in 2016. Six years after his last team ride at the 2011 European Championships on Prestige, he snatched a team spot again with Statesman for the 2017 Europeans, but soon after he sold the horse to Canadian Naima Moreira Laliberté.

The 37-year old Domingo has a new partner in crime in the 9-year old Hanoverian mare Sonata DSH (by Scolari x Brentano II x Weltmeyer). Bred in Spain and previously and owned by Yeguada Omega, the chestnut mare was competed as a youngster by Tamar Zafra Raya. She placed sixth in the 5-year old division at the 2015 Spanish Young Horse Championships, before Jordi took over four years ago in 2014.

The pair made its actual show debut just two months ago in February and their CDI Grand Prix debut a month ago in Nieuw en St. Joosland, The Netherlands, where they were 16th in the Grand prix and third in the Special. At the 2019 CDI Segovia last weekend, the pair stepped it up and won the Grand Prix with 71.304% in a field of no less than 27 combinations ! They were also solid in the Special with a second place on 71.021%.

Jordi also had his second Grand Prix horse, Dolman, with him in Segovia. Aboard the 11-year old Dutch warmblood (by Lord Leatherdale) he placed fifth in the Grand Prix (69.870%) and fourth in the freestyle (70.835%).

"I competed Sonata and Dolman and I was very pleased with both of them," Domingo told Eurodressage about his weekend in Segovia. "Especially with Sonata because she is showing so much potential in the ring at her young age," he added.

Jordi relies on the expert eyes of his coach Rudolf Zeilinger, who is now also the official Spanish team trainer. "Lately we have been working with Sonata together and she has been doing some major changes," he said about getting trained by Zeilinger. "This year our goal is to get more routine with both of my horses, specially with Dolman, but I'm not in a rush with Sonata. She’s one of the best horses I ever had and I want to give her the time she needs."