The rising 75-year old multiple Olympian Hiroshi Hoketsu has acquired the Wittig family's 15-year old Westfalian registered Brioni W as his 2016 Rio Olympic hopeful.
Brioni W is a 15-year old gelding by Breitling x Diego xx x Palisander bred by Wittig and Thiemann. He is the full brother of Bertoli W, which sold to Kuranojo Saito's a few weeks ago.
Brigitte Wittig campaigned the big bay gelding. They finished 9th in the 2008 Nurnberger Burgpokal Finals and made their international Grand Prix debut at the CDI Vidauban in March 2011. From 2011 to 2015 the duo only competed at three CDI's each year. Their last show was the CDI Darmstadt in August 2015, where they finished 4th in the Grand Prix (71.780%) and 3rd in the Special (71.019%).
Hiroshi Hoketsu will turn 75 on 28 March 2016. His last competition was the 2012 Olympic Games in London. His top horse Whisper struggled with a hoof injury and for a better recovery Hoketsu left his long-time coach Ton de Ridder to relocate to Egbert Kraak's yard in The Netherlands. Unfortunately Whisper had to be euthanized in November 2013. For his partnership with Brioni W, Hoketsu will be training with Wolfram Wittig.
Hoketsu has competed at three Olympics (1964 as a show jumping, 2008 and 2012 as a dressage rider). The Tokyo based rider was CEO of the pharma division of Johnson & Johnson in Germany until his retirement in 2003.
With the acquisition of Brioni W, the shopping spree of the Japanese has come to an end as the FEI Olympic ownership transfer deadline of 15 January 2016 has passed. Over the last few months, Japanese dressage riders have bought or leased Renate Vogelsang's Fabriano, Alexandra Barbacon-Mester's Don Lorean, Anne van Olst's Clearwater, Dominika Krasko-Bialek's Otello, Imke Schellekens-Bartels' Toots, Wolfram Wittig's Bertoli W, Christoph Koschel's Tiesto and Rostropowitsch, and Helen Langehanenberg's Rohjuwel.
Photo © Barbara Schnell
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