Anna Christina Abbelen Retains Crown at 2024 Palm Beach Dressage Derby

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2024 Palm Beach Derby

The popular Palm Beach Derby returned for its 41st anniversary edition on Friday 1 March 2024 at the CDI-W Wellington in Florida. The exciting knock-out contest pits riders head-to-head to ride a Prix St. Georges on an unfamiliar horse with just five minutes to warm up before tackling the test in the main arena.

This year, the ever popular class culminated in a tussle between 20-year-old Erin Nichols (USA) and the reigning Palm Beach Derby champion, the 27-year-old German rider Anna-Christina Abbelen. Both athletes emerged victorious from the semi-final knock-out rounds earlier in the evening.

Kohmann had a hand in this class too, as the mare used for the final leg, Monique Richter’s 13-year-old mare, A Cappella, was produced to grand prix level by him. She was bred in the US by Judy McGaughan, and is being campaigned by Sven Steffens-Smienk this year at small tour.

Nichols, drawn first, had a tricky ride on the Soprano x Argentinus daughter, scoring 58.383% on her first appearance under the lights. Abbelen stepped into the stirrups and coaxed a 69.081% test from the mare to capture the Howald Pferdekaemper memorial trophy, and successfully defend her title.

“I’m quite familiar with that breeding and I think that helped,” said Abbelen, who came in off the left rein. “As we have just five minutes, you can’t practice all the transitions, and you have only one walk to canter in the test, so I thought I would try to go around the edge and come in off the left lead too.”

Nichols said, “I think she [A Cappella] had a bit of an opinion today. She was unsure and I couldn’t give her as much confidence as I would have liked. It was my first time riding under the lights, and my first time riding a test after five minutes.”