Swedish Patrik Kittel and the Oatley family's 9-year old Oldenburg gelding Delaunay were the winners of the Grand Prix at the 2015 CDI Mechelen in Belgium on Sunday morning 27 December 2015. The duo scored a winning 74.640% to top the leader board in a field of 17 competitors in total.
The judges' panel in Mechelen included Holler, Saleh, Sanders-Van gansewinkel, Baarup, and van Daele (BEL) and four of them placed Kittel first.
"I ride the World Cup competitions with Scandic but I love to ride in Mechelen, so I took Delaunay," Kittel commented after his victory. "He is just nine, we bought him for my wife at age 7 at Andreas Helgstrand's. He is super talented but is really hot. That's why I took over for a while, until she can take him back once he has got more experience. I am really pleased with this victory, because I had never won the Grand Prix here before. Delaunay really trusts me now and is such a nice horse to ride."
German Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and her second Grand Prix horse Zaire, an 11-year old Dutch warmblood mare by Son de Niro x Jazz, ranked second with 72,720%. The judges placed her from first to sixth place with marks ranging from 74.200% to 71.100%.
"It's the first participation in Mechelen for me," said Werndl. "I had a few mistakes at the beginning of the test, and there was some tension due to noise in the tribunes, but the further I got in the test, the better it went. There were parts he had never done better. Christmas was very short, though, because we had a 850 km drive. We had to leave on Christmas day. It was an easy sacrifice though, the atmosphere in this WDM was so great."
The best scoring Belgian combination was the third placed pair, Jeroen Devroe and the 11-year old Belgian warmblood Eres DL (by Sir Lui x Balzflug). They posted a score of 72,220% with marks ranging from 70.800% (7th) to 74.900 (2nd).
"I was very pleased with my test today," said Jeroen. "He had a real off day during the previous WDM of Roosendaal, a few weeks back. Here, his confidence was back and everything went great."
Photo © Chris Coessens
Related Links
Scores 2015 CDI Mechelen
Mechelen Gears Up for Last World Dressage Masters of the Year 2015