After his impressive results over the last few months and in the first days of the Wiesbaden Whitsun Horse Show, it came as no surprise that Gregory Wathelet won the $114,206 Grand Prix of the City of Wiesbaden, the second of six legs of the Riders Tour 2007.

But considering that the top five riders of the World Rankings were riding in the Grand Prix, the victory for Wathelet, a Belgian rider who competes for the Ukraine, was no guarantee. The course, built by Stefan Wiegand on the grass and through the old trees of the Biebrich Palace Park of Wiesbaden, suffered a bit from the rain. The grass had withstood a thunderstorm on Saturday, but none of the horses slipped, and almost all riders did go full speed.

For the second round of the Grand Prix, 10 of the 34 participants could qualify. Seven combinations did so with a clear round, and three with a four-penalty round. The second round started for all 10 riders with 0 penalties. The four-penalty rides went first into the arena, starting with the FEI Rider of the Year with the Horse of the Year, Austria’s Thomas Frühmann and The Sixth Sense.

Just one weekend earlier, they scored a second place in the Grand Prix of Munich, won by Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum. But, as at Dortmund (Germany) in March, the Westphalian gelding had a hoof in the first oxer in the first round at Wiesbaden and caught a fault there. In the second round he had another hoof in the oxer at fence 7 but pulled it out without dropping a rail and finished clear in 48.17 seconds.

Wathelet, second to go, had already won the opening class and one speed class aboard his top mount, the 9-year-old Hanoverian gelding Lantinus, who had the first element of the triple combination down in the first round. Wathelet, a member of the fourth-placed team from the 2006 World Equestrian Games, took every risk. With the tightest turns he took over the lead from Frühmann in 47.01 seconds, which earned him the victory and a purse of $29,559.

Tough To Beat
The remaining eight riders produced only three more clear rounds, including Germany’s Gilbert Böckmann aboard the 10-year-old KWPN mare Böckmann’s Olivia in 49.34 seconds, placing fourth. Fifth place went to the German-based Irish rider Jessica Kürten and Quibell, with another clear round, in 49.40 seconds.

As the second-to-last rider, the FEI World Rankings leader Michaels-Beerbaum took all efforts aboard her top mount Shutterfly, for whom it was the first outdoor Grand Prix this year. She managed to stay clear, but she needed exactly .03 seconds more than the leader, and they slotted into runner-up position.

As the last starters of the second round, Germany’s shooting star Daniel Deusser, who had just won the King’s Cup of CSI***** Madrid (Spain) aboard his World Cup runner-up Air Jordan, went very fast with Upsilon D’ocquier. But at the sixth fence, his dream of winning this prestigious class was spoiled. At a vertical in an interesting chess design, the 10-year-old Belgian gelding dropped a pole to the ground. A second pole down followed at the last fence, leaving the pair in ninth.

A horse to watch for the future is the 8-year-old, gray Belgian stallion Cornet Obolensky, an offspring of famous show jumper Clinton, sired out of a Heart-breaker dam. In the horse’s first Grand Prix, Marco Kutscher guided him to a very calm, stylish ride, demonstrating the high potential of the horse. With a pole down at the second fence and a slow time they finished in eighth place.

Some of the favorites did not even make it to the second round. Marcus Ehning tipped the front pole of the third element of the triple combination, an oxer, with a slight touch by Gitania.

“With some luck the pole would have stayed up, but today I had no luck,” said Ehning, who during the first days of the Wiesbaden show had been competing at the CSIO Rome (Italy). There, his double-clear round aboard Küchengirl helped the German team to a second place in the Super League Nations Cup.

Ludger Beerbaum was also very disappointed. Aboard his veteran stallion Goldfever he had a pole down at the third-to-last fence, a triple bar, in the first round. With his time he ranked 12th and did not qualify for the second round.

Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson had no luck aboard Mac Kinley. At the triple bar he almost fell off the horse, missed the next oxer and then jumped the last fence, retiring therewith.

The youngest participant of the Grand Prix, 17-year-old William Whitaker, the double European Junior Champion, had only one pole down. The nephew of Michael and John Whitaker placed 15th with the 11-year-old British mare Carnaval Path, bred by Michael Whitaker.

Enormous Potential
Beerbaum won the qualifier for the Grand Prix with his young ride, the 8-year-old Westphalian gelding All Inclusive NRW, sired by Arpeggio.

“All Inclusive has been in my barn for almost two years now and had been competed in the youngster tour by Marco Kutscher and Philipp Weishaupt,” Beerbaum said. “He has enormous potential, and if he develops well, he will certainly be a horse for championships.”

Wathelet was very excited about his Grand Prix victory: “I almost cannot believe that I achieved this victory. I just tried to ride as fast as possible.“

With his win in the second leg of the Riders Tour, Wathelet shares the lead in the standings with the Hamburg-Derby winner Andre Thieme of Germany, who had 18 penalties aboard Magnus in the Wiesbaden Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old Ukrainian rider has changed his plans for the season after his victory. “I will now try to participate in some of the remaining four legs of the Riders Tour,” he said.

After having qualified with the third-fastest four-penalty ride as the 10th rider for the second round, Fruhmann said, “I consider my third place in the Grand Prix as  a gift.”

As for Michaels-Beerbaum, she admitted that she does not know where she could have ridden faster to best Wathelet’s time.

In spite of the changing weather conditions, an even bigger crowd attended Wiesbaden this year, with 52,000 spectators for the CDI and the CSI combined.