USA Runs With It in Aachen... 
US crowd with flags As it has done so many times before, the Samsung
Super League turned up another surprising result today at the Mercedez-Benz Prize
Nations Cup of Aachen, when the much-fancied German team failed to shine on their
home ground while the USA stormed to their second victory in the 2005 series.
The Americans finished with a total of 13 faults to leave them with a
significant eight-fault advantage over the joint runners-up from Holland and France
but the under-dog Irish were bitterly disappointed when a dramatic second-round
mistake for Billy Twomey denied them second position and dropped them to last.
The Swiss and British shared fourth ahead of Belgium in sixth, but nobody could
have expected that the European show jumping champions from Germany would finish
seventh, and just two faults ahead of the unfortunate Irish who have now plummeted
once more to the bottom of the leaderboard. That is not a good place to
be going into the series finale in Barcelona on September 18th and they know it. Frank
Rothenberger's 12-fence track provided plenty of problems and only America's McLain
Ward riding Sapphire and Holland's Gerco Schroder with Eurcommerce
Monaco found all the answers in both rounds. Ward is still only part-recovered
from the broken collarbone injury he suffered in a fall at Hickstead last month,
making today's performance all the more remarkable, and his Chef d'Equipe, George
Morris, said "He gave his horse a fabulous ride today, he's a great performer
under pressure". Mr. Morris described the course as ".
. . big but not technical. There were some big, narrow fences and the big oxer
towards the end of the track (fence 10) which was on a downhill slope took its
toll. The last line was difficult too, with a gymnastic vertical and then a steady
seven or forward six strides to the combination which had a short two-stride distance
between the last two elements" he said. "Most of the week here
in Aachen the courses were very trappy; but, today's track was much more straight-forward.
It proved very difficult; bu, we just had four wonderful riders and four very
nice horses - that's what clinched it for us" he added. The Americans
and Dutch were already looking good when sharing the lead with four faults each
at the halfway stage when the British were carrying just five, the Swiss had six,
the Irish and French carried eight, Germany had already collected nine and the
Belgians were bringing up the rear with 16. Germany's team and individual
European gold medal winning partnership of Marco Kutscher and Montender
never showed their true form and provided the discount score in both rounds while
Marcus Ehning and Gitania provided the home side's only foot-perfect performance
when clear in the first round. As the second round progressed the Dutch
began to look vulnerable when European bronze medalist Jeroen Dubbeldam
returned a 12-fault result with BMC Nassau while Leon Thijssen and Nairobi
picked up 13, but Schroder's second clear and Harrie Smolder's five-fault
score with Oliver steadied the decline. A single time fault for Herve
Godignon and Obelix and just one error from Gilles Bertran de Balanda and
Crocus Graverie saw the French improve even though Florian Angot's eight-fault
score with First de Launay had to be taken into account and their final tally
of 21 left them on level-pegging with The Netherlands. The Swiss and British
suffered a bit of a collapse, the Swiss adding 16 more faults to their tally while
the British added 17. Markus Fuchs produced the best Swiss performance
when picking up just one time fault first time out with La Toya and then clipping
the top rail of the triple bar, a fence that caused few other problems throughout
the day, at his second attempt. New British star Ellen Whitaker was
most impressive when collecting only a single time fault with Locarno in round
one when her uncle, Michael Whitaker, jumped clear with Portofino, but
Nick Skelton provided the best British score at the end of the day
when adding nothing to his first-round four faults with Arko and the British and
Swiss shared fourth place with 22 faults each at the end of the day. The
Belgians meanwhile made a rapid recovery when, despite a disappointing discount
12-fault score for Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe and Osta Rugs Quintus, Jos
Lansink and Cavalor Cumano fought the perfect rearguard action, adding nothing
to the four-fault second-round results achieved by Dirk Demeersman (Clinton)
and Ludo Philippaerts (Parco). Their total of 24 faults was still good
enough to secure sixth place. Sensationally, the Germans just couldn't seem
to get it together and the addition of a further 21 faults proved very costly
indeed as they slotted into second-last spot. Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum
and Checkmate provided the best home-side result with a single error in each round
but perhaps the successes Germany has enjoyed in recent months were reflected
in the less than sparkling performances seen today when they completed with a
total of 30 faults on the board. Its difficult to be brilliant all the time. For
the Irish, their last-place result was nothing short of devastating. Without some
of their top riders due to recent clashes with the team management they were never
looking strong, but they put up a marvellous fight in the first round before disaster
struck. Last man in for his team, Billy Twomey knew that the 12 faults
picked up by pathfinder Shane Breen could be discarded if he could bring
his horse home without penalty and he also knew that this would secure runner-up
spot for his beleaguered side. He jumped clear all the way to the final combination
but, going in strong, he took a big check between the second and third elements
and his mare, confused and off-balance, stopped. Bringing her around again
he then hit the second element before crossing the line, and the 12 faults he
collected brought the Irish total to 32 and slotted them into last place. It
was all smiles for George Morris however as the USA heads to Barcelona
next month with a four-point lead at the head of the 2005 Samsung Super League
leaderboard. With the big Spruce Meadows Masters tournament in Calgary, Canada
attracting most of the top teams during the previous week the selection process
for Barcelona is not quite so simple though, and Mr. Morris said today
"We're out in front now and I hope we can win the Super League; but, we will
be sending some different horses and riders to Spain - we'll certainly be giving
it our best shot". And things could look very different after the final
round, with the double-points available at the last fixture likely to prove very
influential indeed. RESULTS:
1.
USA - 13 faults: Armani (Jeffery Welles) 4/5, Miss Independent (Laura
Kraut) 4/12, Sapphire (McLain Ward) 0/0, Authentic (Beezie Madden) 0/4.
2T. The Netherlands - 21 faults: BMC Nassau (Jeroen Dubbeldam) 0/12,
Oliver Q (Harrie Smolders) 8/5, Nairobi (Leon Thijssen) 4/13, Eurocommerce Monaco
(Gerco Schroder) 0/0.
2T.. France - 21 faults: First de Launay (Florian
Angot) 4/8, Obelix (Herve Godignon) 4/1, Crocus Graverie (Gilles Bertran de Balanda)
0/4, Cigale du Taillis (Eugenie Angot) 9/9.
4T. Switzerland
- 22 faults: La Toya (Markus Fuchs) 1/4, LB No Mercy (Christina Liebherr)
4/4, Cantus (Niklaus Schurtenberger) 1/8, Tijl van het Pallieterland (Steve Guerdat)
5/13.
4T. Great Britain - 22 faults: Arko (Nick Skelton) 4/0,
Cortaflex Mondriaan (William Funnell) 5/13, AK Locarno (Ellen Whitaker) 1/12,
Portofino (Michael Whitaker) 0/5.
6. Belgium - 24 faults: Osta
Rugs Quintus (Jean Claude Vangeenberghe) 8/12, Clinton (Dirk Demeersman) 4/4,
Parco (Ludo Philippaerts) 8/4, Cavalor Cumano (Jos Lansink) 4/0.
7.
Germany - 30 faults: Gitania (Marcus Ehning) 0/8, Montender (Marco Kutscher)
8/12, Checkmate (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) 4/4, L'Espoir (Ludger Beerbaum) 5/9.
8. Ireland - 32 faults: World Cruise (Shane Breen) 0/12, Condios (Dermott
Lennon) 4/8, Killossery (Shane Carey) 13/4, Anastasia (Billy Twomey) 4/12. SAMSUNG
SUPER LEAGUE LEADERBOARD (after Round 7 in Aachen):
1. USA
- 43
2. Germany - 39
3. Great Britain - 37
4. Switzerland - 28
5. France - 27.5
6. Belgium - 19
7. The Netherlands- 18.5
8. Ireland
- 15 * * * 
PHOTO CREDIT: The winning United States Samsung Super League Team. (L-R) Jeffery
Welles, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden and McLain Ward, with Chef d’Equipe George
Morris. Photo by Ken Braddick-HorseSport USA
U.S.A.
Wins Samsung Super League at Aachen, Germany; Leads in Series with Only Barcelona
Remaining AACHEN, Germany - Aug. 26 – Riding two clear
rounds with a broken collar bone, McLain Ward led the United States to
victory in the Samsung Super League on Friday before 48,000 fans at the World
Equestrian Festival. The victory was the second in the eight-event
premier international league of show jumping and put the United States back atop
the standings with only one event remaining, that in Barcelona, in mid-September.
The U.S. team consisted of Ward, of Brewster, New York on Double
H Farm’s Sapphire; Beezie Madden, of Cazenovia, New York on Authentic,
owned by Abigail Wexner; Laura Kraut, of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on Pasmore
Stable’s Miss Independent; and Jeffery Welles, of Ridgefield, Connecticut
Riding Armani, owned by Kimmel-Yeager Equine. They became instant celebrities
after their win which led to an emotional celebration that embraced the Chef d’Equipe,
George Morris, of Flemington, New Jersey with demands from the riders that
he remain the leader of the U.S. show jumping team. American fans
were mingled with the huge crowds for the win in the double-round competition
that pits the world’s top eight show jumping nations against each other at
eight different European venues. The Netherlands and France tied
for second place while the Germans, despite fielding a team that included
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, formerly of Los Angeles but now a German citizen,
and her brother-in-law, Ludger Beerbaum, finished in seventh place. Germany
had held hopes of victory on their home turf, especially as Aachen is the
site of the 2006 World Equestrian Games. Ward’s broken
collar bone, sustained during a Super League competition in Hickstead, England
four weeks ago, had kept him out of competition until this week because he wanted
to be available to ride for the United States. The seriousness of the injury was
virtually unknown to the crowds and the European media until after Friday’s
competition. He was one of only two riders to go clear twice. When
the condition of his health became known to the media, he was flooded with questions.
“We have great doctors at the U.S. Federation,” he said. “They
told me I should allow three months to mend. ‘But you’re not going to
do that, are you?’, one of them asked me. I said, ‘Are you kidding?’
So they said if it felt right, I could ride again in three weeks; but, if I fell,
it would not be great. This week was the first week back riding.”
“My horse was amazing. I was just kinda hanging on,” Ward
laughed. “She jumped incredible. I had not been riding well all week. I was
pretty frustrated last night, really. My horses have been in great form all week,
but I’ve been just average and very rusty,” he said. “Today, I
knew she was going to jump well and I just wanted to stay out of her way. All
I can say is what a wonderful horse Sapphire is. I’m only half a rider and
she carried me around to two clear rounds.” “McLain
was absolutely incredible today,” said Jeffery Welles. “This
is really big for us. The United States hadn’t won in Aachen since 1987 (eighteen
years), so today’s win was huge.” Welles, who had won in Germany
before, but had never competed at Aachen, talked about walking in that show ring
for the first time. “Incredible. That stadium is just unbelievable. To compete
here is an honor,” he said. Kraut’s horse, Miss
Independent, which has shown in six of the seven Super League competitions so
far this year, threw a shoe right before the 10th fence in the second round, causing
her some problems down the home stretch. Madden, anchoring
the team for the third time this season on Authentic, said that she felt less
pressure in the second round than the first because of the large cushion created
by her teammates. Madden, as the last to go, knew she had a two knock down
margin. Morris became the team leader at the start of the
Super League in April this year, the second season the U.S. has been a participant.
The U.S. won that first event, in France, and has since remained at or near the
top of the standings. “I had a premonition about this class
and although we didn’t have a great show at Aachen leading up to the Super
League, I felt we would do well today,” said Morris. “This
was very big victory,” Morris said. “And we won it handily considering
McLain had a broken collar bone and Miss Independent cast a shoe in the
last round. I thought the Germans would be much stronger, but they didn’t
have their best day,” Morris admitted. In a team meeting
last night, Morris talked to his team and told them, “This is an American
team and I want it ridden the American way. I made that very clear,” he said.
“We have the best system in the world and we should stick to it and not get
distracted by other systems. It’s all about being over here and building
depth and we’re doing that now.” “Now I have to keep
it going,” Morris said. “This feeling is fabulous. I’m happy
when I’m winning and I’m unhappy when I’m not winning.”
The United States riders are competing in Aachen with the help of grants
from the United States Equestrian Team Foundation. Your
contributions to the United States Equestrian Team Foundation support America’s
High Performance athletes at international competitions. Please contribute online
at www.uset.org. Visit the official website of the World Equestrian
Festival in Aachen, Germany at: http://www.chioaachen.de or for unique and up
to the minute coverage visit Towerheads at: www.towerheads.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 