Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Shutterfly, winners of the Budweiser FEI World Cup Final in April, rolled to yet another outstanding victory on Aug. 29, claiming the top spot in the Aachen Grand Prix at the CHIO Aachen, in Aachen, Germany. They jumped two faultless rounds, finishing the jump-off in 41.31 seconds.
Dirk Demeersman of Belgium was second on Clinton (0-0/41.85), and countryman Jos Lansink, on Cavalor Cumano (0-0/42.39) was third.
McLain Ward, who anchored the U.S. Nations Cup team to their historic win with a double-clear performance on Friday, finished fourth on Sapphire (0-4/42.04). Beezie Madden and Authentic were sixth, Jeffery Welles was 18th on Armani, and Laura Kraut was 25th on Anthem.
On Saturday Ward also won the Miele & Cie. KG class on Goldika over Bernardo Alves of Brazil on Corino.
Winning the Aachen Grand Prix was redemption of sorts for Michaels-Beerbaum. Last year at Aachen she was a member of the winning German Nation Cup team and looked as if she\’d secured herself a spot on the German Olympic team. But she was left off the team due to a doping case concerning Shutterfly at the 2004 World Cup Final, from which she was later exonerated. This was the first time a woman has won the Aachen Grand Prix since Anne Kursinski of the United States did it in 1991.
After winning a young jumper class with Sampras on Thursday, Welles continued to do well with the Holsteiner gelding, finishing second in the Sparkassen Youngster Cup on Saturday. Bernardo Alves of Brazil won the class on Concept.
While the jumpers battled it out in the Aachen main arena, the dressage riders competed too.
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Jan Brink of Sweden won the Grand Prix Special on the Swedish Warmblood stallion Björsells Briar, dethroning Anky Van Grunsven and Salinero from their customary top spot. Van Grunsven said that Salinero spooked at something as he entered the arena and she was never able to regain his focus properly. She finished 13th (70.96%).
Silvia Ikle of Switzerland was second on Salieri (75.40%), and Edward Gal of the Netherlands finished third on Geldnet Lingh (74.96%).
Steffen Peters finished best of all the Americans. Riding Laurie Browning\’s Floriano, he was sixth (73.84%). Leslie Morse and Kingston were 12th (71.76%), George Williams and Rocher were 15th (70.68%), and Guenter Seidel and Aragon were 23rd (68.32%).
Brink then went on to win the Grand Prix freestyle too (82.70%). Van Grunsven recovered to claim second (81.52%), and Hubertus Schmidt of Germany rode Wansuela Suerte to third (79.10%).
Peters scored a 75.15 percent to take ninth place. Morse and Williams finished 13th and 15th respectively.
Morse also finished fifth on Tip Top in the in the non-CDIO Grand Prix Special (67.40%), where Peters was eighth on Lombardi (62.80%).
