Philipp sat on the just seven-year-old Hatrona for the first time last Sunday. Today, the pair won the second qualifier for the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup. A victory for which the horse had earned the applause much more than himself, said Weishaupt afterwards.

It is unusual for a seven-year-old horse to leave his eight-year-old colleagues trailing behind him in a youngster class. It is even more unusual when the horse and rider haven’t even known each other for a week. But that was precisely the case with Philipp Weishaupt and the KWPN mare Hatrona by Eldorado van de Zeshoek. Weishaupt was qualified to compete in Aachen, but he didn’t have a horse for the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup. Then, he met up with his friend, Holger Wenz, last Saturday, who said: “I have got a super horse for you, one for the Youngsters Tour in Aachen!” Weißhaupt wasted no time, the very next day he had already saddled Hatrona. Two days later the two of them galloped into the expansive stadium of the Soers and left it on a score of four faults. The result of his second ride today: The victory after having crossed the finish line clear in the fastest time. Philipp Weishaupt: “I didn’t contribute that much to this win! Hatrona is a super horse – careful, scopey, fast and easy to ride. All the right ingredients!” The mare now has the chance to prove this once again on Saturday in the Final of the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup.

Hatrona wasn’t the only seven-year-old in the class, who outperformed her older colleagues. Second place also went to the KWPN-bred H.Big Action by Action Breaker, who was born in 2012 too. He was ridden by the Brazilian rider, Eduardo Menezes.

Gerrit Nieberg from Germany and the Westphalian-bred Ben by Sylvain claimed third place. Since the pair also finished fourth on Tuesday, the duo from Münsterland are the most successful pair in the Sparkassen-Youngsters Cup 2019 so far.

In total, eight German pairs will be competing in the Final of the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup on Saturday evening, in addition to Nieberg with Ben and Weishaupt with Hatrona they are Patrick Stühlmeyer with For Laubry, Marcus Ehning with Priam du Roset, Christian Kukuk with Mumbai, Maurice Tebbel with Can Ya Mecan, Christian Ahlmann with Mandato ven de Neerheide and Felix Haßmann with the horse that won silver at the World Championships of the Young Horses in 2017, Quiwitino WZ.

The CHIO Aachen has been the venue for the Final of the German U25 Trophy of the Stiftung Deutscher Spitzenpferdesport, Prize of Family Müter, since 2015. Tim-Uwe Hoffmann succeeded in qualifying for the final for the third time today. But it was the first time he headed the lap of honour at the Soers.

As the last to go in the opening jumping competition of the German U25 Trophy Stiftung of the Stiftung Deutscher Spitzenpferdesport, Prize of Family Müter, Tim-Uwe Hoffmann was able to assert himself against his fellow competitors with his self-trained Hanoverian-bred mare, Casta Lee.

Until the last but one pair entered the ring, the silver medallist of the Ladies German Championships was in the lead, Sophie Hinners with Vittorio. Then, came Jan André Schulze with his ten-year-old Oldenburg-bred Fitch. The 24-year-old from Warendorf and his Flipper d’Elle son already arrived in Aachen in top form, they namely finished sixth in both the Grand Prix at the Nations Cup show in Uggerhalne (DEN) as well as in the Grand Prix in Mons Ghlin (BEL). They paced around the course at the Soers with the corresponding self-confidence and stripped one second off Sophie Hinners and Vittorio’s time. The clock stopped at 68.95 seconds for Schulze Niehues. Sophie Hinners and Vittorio had taken 70 seconds. Now it was Schulze Niehues’ turn to bite his nails. He won the qualifier in Hagen. Tim-Uwe Hoffmann finished first in Mannheim.

“Yes, one is definitely more nervous here than at other shows. And you can’t compare riding into the Soers with anything else,” admitted Hoffmann. “But it is not like I let it really get to me.” On the contrary, Hoffmann had a plan that he stuck to. At the last fence, fortune was on the side of the brave, when Casta Lee lightly brushed the pole, but luckily it didn’t fall: Tim-Uwe Hoffmann and Casta Lee jumped to victory clear in a time of 65.68 seconds, ahead of Jan André Schulze Niehues with Fitch and Sophie Hinners with Vittorio.

In 2017, Tim-Uwe Hoffmann came 21^st. He finished eighth in the Final in 2018. We’ll have to wait how he ranks on Saturday. The Final of the German U25 Trophy of the Stiftung Deutscher Spitzenpferdesport, Prize of Family Müter, begins at 1.15 p.m.

Philipp Weishaupt has only been riding the nine-year-old Coby for six weeks. Today, in the Prize of StädteRegion Aachen in memory of Landrat Hermann-Josef Pütz, the gelding once again showed his rider that he destined for greater tasks.

This is to be taken quite literally. Since Philipp Weishaupt had namely thought, Coby would be a great horse for speed competitions. “But now I keep getting the feeling that he could also jump in the top classes!” The nine-year-old Hanoverian-bred gelding already won two classes at his first competitions in Calgary. And now the first appearance at the Soers and a victory straight away in the 1.5-metre-high two-phase jumping competition, the Prize of StädteRegion Aadchen in memory of Landrat Hermann-Josef Pütz. Weishaupt: “I am sure we are going to have a lot of fun with him!”

With a clear round in 32.50 seconds, Philipp Weishaupt and his Contagio son, relegated Luciana Diniz (POR) and the new star in her yard, the Selle Français gelding, Vertigo du Desert by Mylord Carthago, into second place (33.44). This is a pretty new horse/rider combination too. Diniz has been riding the grey gelding since March. An acquaintance rang her and had seen “the next Fit For Fun” for her. Fit For Fun is the horse with which Diniz came second with in the Grand Prix of Aachen, in both 2017 and 2018. So, it is no surprise that Diniz was buzzing. It turns out that her acquaintance certainly hadn’t promised too much: “It was love at first sight,” said the rider, who originates from Brazil and whose stables are located near Bonn. The pair have already won several rosettes and put in a promising opening performance at the World Equestrian Festival today.

The Swiss rider, Martin Fuchs was delighted at finishing third with the Zangersheide-bred mare, Chica BZ (34.54), followed by Felix Haßmann on Balance (35.47) and Daniel Deußer with Killer Queen VDM, who won the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup last year.

If the sponsor of the competition, Turkish Airlines, should ever decide to implement a horse as an advertising medium, Ben Maher’s Explosion W would be the right candidate for the airline. That the pair demonstrated today over the course of the Turkish Airlines-Prize of Europe, can literally only be described as a flight to victory.

It was as if Ben Maher and his just ten-year-old, Chacco Blue son, Explosion W, floated over the extremely demanding course in the Turkish Airlines-Prize of Europe. Among others, the course designer, Frank Rothenberger, had placed the fences over water that are dreaded in Aachen in the way of the riders for the first time this year. No problem whatsoever for Explosion W. “But for me definitely,” the rider admitted remorsefully and explained: “I had actually planned to ride nine canter strides in between, but it turned out to be eight.” Explosion solved something that would have faced other horses with a huge problem in his own style: simply took off a bit more energetically. There wasn’t a second in the jump-off where the crowd held its breath either, because there was no chance of him brushing a pole. Explosion completed one fence after the other often and easily jumping 30 centimetres higher than the obstacles. The pair reached the finish line in a time of 46.28 seconds, clear of course. “He gives you the feeling that there is nothing he is not capable of achieving,” raved his rider. So, it didn’t surprise him at all that the gelding jumped to the top on his debut appearance at the Aachen Soers.

Maher had a good explanation for his miscalculation in the first round: “I took a fall in the competition before and got kicked on my head. That obviously restricted my ability to count somewhat,” he joked, but then assured everyone: “It looked worse than it was.” And after his victory he was obviously feeling much better… Maher’s bottom line of the day: “We now know what we can expect on Sunday in the Grand Prix!”

A difficult course – Maher’s colleagues were of the same opinion. Second place went to the Spanish rider, Eduardo Alvarez Aznar, with his top horse, the 14-year-old Selle Français gelding, Rokfeller de Pleville Bois Margot, who has already competed at the Soers twice before, so he is familiar with the dimensions of both the stadium and the obstacles. After achieving a fantastic eighth place in the World Cup Finals in Gothenburg, the l’Arc de Triomphe son had taken a well-earned few weeks break from competing. “Aachen is his fourth outdoor show,” reported Alvarez Aznar. “The aim was for him to be as fresh as possible here.” The strategy obviously paid off. The pair took the shortest routes to reach the finish line clear in 47.08 seconds.

The 27,000 spectators cheered loudly in the Main Stadium as Daniel Deußer and his Zangersheide-bred stallion, Tobago Z, finished clear and went into the lead after the clock stopped at 47.71 seconds. However, his joy didn’t last for long, because his two fellow competitors who started behind him in the jump-off were quicker off the mark. Daniel Deußer was nevertheless very happy at coming third. “Tobago Z has had a few months break and was at stud. I have been getting him back into form over the past weeks and Aachen is first highlight in the season.”

Deußer knows exactly where he lost the decisive seconds in the jump-off: I could have taken one less canter stride on the way to the last fence. But in retrospect it was probably better that I didn’t.” This was a reference to the fall of the rider from the USA, Laura Kraut, who was on course to win up until the last obstacle, but then didn’t find the right take-off to the oxer at all with the Verdi daughter, Fleurette, because she had opted for the shortest route. The result was that both horse and rider fell. Luckily, neither of them hurt themselves. Fleurette trotted towards the exit, Kraut left the ring on foot waving to the crowd and received a consoling applause.

Daniel Deußer’s summary of the Turkish Airlines-Prize of Europe 2019: “Yes, the course was difficult, but we still had eleven clear rounds and two pairs that only had time faults. So, the course designer achieved his aim!”

Ireland’s Darragh Kenny was the last to go in the Prize of Handwerk with his speedy black steed, Cazador LS, and the pair went on to claim the victory – to the disappointment of André Thieme.

It had seemed like the rider from Mecklenburg, André Thieme, was sure to win the Prize of Handwerk. It would have been the first golden rosette at the Aachen Soers in his career. He was the third last to compete in the 1.45-metre-high speed competition with his Cellestial-son, Cellisto. Up until then, the Swiss show-jumper, Pius Schwizer was in the lead with Grand Cooper after jumping clear in a time of 66.63 seconds. When it was Thieme’s turn, 45 pairs had already tried in vain to overtake the Swiss rider. Then, Thieme and Cellisto entered the ring: Rhythmically and efficiently they strided over the course. The 13-year-old Brandenburg-bred DSP gelding is a talented jumper and Cellisto’s scopey canter did the rest. As the pair flew over the finish line after the last oxer clear three hundredths of a second faster than Schwizer, the audience already began to applaud Thieme loudly as the winner of the competition.

But no jumping class has actually been won, if the speedy Irish riders haven’t yet had their turn. Especially since Darragh Kenny had several advantages going for him: He was namely already able to win the Prize of Handwerk in 2018. What’s more, he was riding a horse that he describes as his speed specialist, the 11-year-old Casall-son, Cazador LS. “He already won the 1.45-metre-high speed class in Calgary. I knew he’d love this stadium,” said Kenny. Because Calgary (or Spruce Meadows), the second open-air venue of the Rolex Grand Slam after Aachen, also has a spacious grass arena. Darragh Kenny was proven right. The black gelding literally flew round the course and sliced over three seconds of Thieme’s and Cellisto’s time. That safely secured him the victory. André Thieme finished second with Cellisto, followed by Pius Schwizer and Grand Cooper.

André Thieme was quick to answer whether he was more overjoyed about coming second or more disappointed at not winning: “More disappointed!” He was nevertheless also very pleased: “That was my first round here and it was a fantastic prelude! That’s how it can continue!” Something that is not improbable at all. Cellisto is Thieme’s speed horse this weekend. He has planned Aretino for the Big Tour and perhaps he will be able to celebrate his first CHIO rosette after all!