The Last shall be First
Friday, July 18, 2008
The 1.50m class in the first afternoon of a spectacular horseshow in A Coruña has been decided by the last rider of the class. The experienced rider Thomas Frühmann from Austria had saddled his best horse The Sixth Sence to defend his position as one of the favourites of this show.
The course of the NH Hoteles Trophy was set up on a very high level, as many participant horses are also going to compete at the Olympic Games in China, such as Michael Whitaker’s Portofino, Ricardo Kierkegaard’s Rey Z or Matthew William’s Leconte.
Course Designer Javier Trenor Paz built a demanding and very technical course within the triple combination turned out to be a very hard challenge for most of the riders, as well as the last fence, the ROLEX-vertical.
Although, the fact that 15 of 47 participants rode a clear round demonstrates the high level of riders and horses in this NH Hoteles Trophy.
Third placed Robert Whitaker from Great Britain rode a clear round with Lacroix in 60,48 seconds, slightly behind Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet, finishing the course with the 9 year old chestnut mare Olympia in 60,32 seconds. He had been leading the class until the last rider entered, Thomas Frühmann with the 12 year old The Sixth Sence. Frühmann rode a clear round in 60,11 seconds and received a price money of 6,250 €.
“I am really very happy about the victory here on this nice show in A Coruña, especially because I haven’t won any class for a long time with The Sixth Sence. So, this was a very important win for me and my horse. I hope it will go on in the same way.”
