The 2015
championship will come down to the
wire after tonight’s Grand Prix
cliffhanger in Vienna was won by
Luciana Diniz (POR) setting up an
epic series climax.
With a €1 million
bonus at stake at the final in
Qatar, three of the world’s top
riders have the chance to take the
Longines Global Champions Tour
crown. Luciana’s blistering victory
in Vienna on her aptly named grey
stallion Winningmood, has closed the
gap on ranking leader and World No1
Scott Brash (GBR). Luciana is now
only a wafer thin two points behind
Scott and as she celebrated her
lastest win she threw down the
gauntlet and said: “I am going to be
pushing you.”
Swedish champion
Rolf-Göran Bengtsson is only another
eight points behind Luciana and the
three-way fight is set to produce a
dramatic dream sporting finish to
the season. It was a night of
intense number crunching in the
Austrian capital with the
possibility that Scott could have
taken the championship if he had
jumped clear and Luciana and Rolf
had scored zero points. But it was
not to be and Scott’s four faults in
the Grand Prix means the fate of the
championship will only be decided on
the final day of the final event of
2015.
Tour President
Jan Tops said: “All three can still
win, it will be very, very exciting.
It can’t be closer. For every sport
it is a dream to keep up the
excitement until the last moment.”
Surrounded by the
city’s world famous palaces, museums
and monuments, the 14th Grand Prix
of the season played out under
floodlights next to the towering
facade of the Rathaus City Hall. An
exhilarating first round saw a
tremendous test for the world’s best
horse and rider combinations, as
they took to the 35m x 90m sand
arena in front of the iconic Rathaus
(City Hall) for the Longines Global
Champions Tour Grand Prix of Vienna
presented by LGT Private Banking.
And a night of
dramatic world class sport more than
lived up to the extraordinary
setting. For the first round Frank
Rothenberger set a big course with
formidable challenges to bring the
best to the top, delivering a few
surprises along the way. Ranking
leader Scott Brash (GBR) and Hello
M’Lady jumped one of their best
rounds of the season so far, but
just flicked the last fence picking
up an unlucky four faults. It was
one of a series of upsets in the
high drama competition but Scott
still made it through to the top 18
and the second round with a chance
for crucial ranking points for the
home stretch of the championship.
Luciana Diniz (POR) and Winningmood
showcased their brilliant
partnership to jump clear, looking
solid all the way through the course
to keep themselves in sight of the
Championship crown.
Rolf-Göran
Bengtsson (SWE) and Casall ASK
picked up an uncharacteristic four
faults in the first round in the
middle of the tricky treble
combination, forcing him to put his
foot on the gas to ensure they went
through to round two. Despite the
challenges of the first round
course, the three Championship
contenders all went through to the
second round keeping their three-way
battle alive.
In total just six
clears went clear to round two, and
three who picked up one time fault;
including Edwina Tops-Alexander
(AUS) and Caretina de Joter who
delivered an impressive clear,
giving the fences plenty of room and
scope.
The second round
featured a challenging related
distance down the middle, another
formidable treble combination, and a
maximum height 1,60m vertical which
came off a tricky line around the
corner.
Scott Brash (GBR)
kept a laser-like focus on
maintaining his ranking lead and
rode a fast but careful clear round
with Hello M’Lady to move him up to
the top of the four faulters. He
crossed the line in an impressive
59.07s, raising the bar for the rest
of the field on four faults and
throwing down the gauntlet to rival
Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (SWE). With the
Championship title in sight, Rolf
and Casall ASK responded, riding the
course in 59.80s, less than a second
off Scott’s time. Such was the high
calibre of competition that Marcus
Ehning (GER), last year’s Grand Prix
winner, followed suit and crossed
the finish line just fractions of a
second behind in 59.92s, and next
place man Pius Schwizer (SUI)
finished on an impressive 59.95s.
Edwina
Tops-Alexander (AUS) carried over
one time fault from the previous
round and jumped clear with Caretina
de Joter, moving her momentarily to
the top of the leaderboard. First to
go double clear was France’s Kevin
Staut with his experienced 16 year
old grey mare Silvana HDC. Simon
Delestre (FRA), Audrey Coulter (USA)
and Rene Tebbel (UKR) tried hard to
make it through to the jump off but
were unable to join the final round.
Harrie Smolders (NED) completed yet
another classy round with his bay
stallion Don VHP Z to make it
through, and Luciana Diniz (POR)
made it three in the jump off with
Winningmood.
As the rain came
down the three riders prepared to
enter the ring once more. The
pressure was on for Kevin and
Silvana HDC as they set the pace at
39.24s, however they were caught out
when they had an unusual two fences
down. Next in the ring came Harrie,
who knew that a clear round would
mean a minimum of second position.
He rode a solid round, quick but
careful in 43.19s to put the
pressure on the final combination of
Luciana and Winningmood.
The crowd cheered
as the pair entered the arena and
dropped to silence as the bell rang.
With a showcase of teamwork and
skill, Luciana and Winningmood took
the win, galloping to the fences to
shave off time, and crossed the line
in 42.81s.
The Tour now
looks to Doha and the final event of
the 2015 season. Once again the
stunning stage of Al Shaqab will
witness a show jumping cliffhanger
with only ten points separating the
top three riders as they stake their
claim on the championship title in
November.
His Highness
Prinz Philipp von und zu
Liechtenstein: "I think it’s an
amazing show here in Vienna. Year
after year the show is great here
and, today again, it was a pleasure
to be here. Until the last moment,
we didn’t know who would win which
made it extremely exciting and it
will be a very tight race until the
last moment."
Charles Villoz,
Vice President of Longines: "In this
sport, we have riders, we have
horses, and today we had great
sport. It was a fantastic show. I
would like to congratulate the
organisation committee here because
they always choose amazing
locations. And this one is really
amazing, probably one of the best. I
have to say “Congrats!”. I also need
to thank Luciana as I never had such
a shower with the champagne. Luciana
is such a great rider that I didn’t
want to leave the podium! That is
the Luciana effect."
Jan Tops, Founder
and President of Longines Global
Champions Tour: "Luciana wanted to
win and she did it. Now she is only
two points from Scott. I think it’s
going to be like that like last
year. Until the last rider of the
second round, we probably won't know
who is going to win. For every
sport, it’s a dream when you can
keep the excitement until the last
competition. This is something very
special. Also of course we can
congratulate Scott being 5th tonight
and Rolf 6th, which is great
performance. Congratulations to the
other riders on the podium of
course. I also would like to thank
our main sponsor Longines. Without
them it wouldn’t be possible to have
such great moment of sport. They
have been very consistent over the
years and I would like to thank them
very sincerely for our great
partnership. Also, LGT Private
Banking was sponsoring the Grand
Prix and I want to thank them for
that. Without them we wouldn't have
an event like this."
Scott Brash,
ranking leader: "I thought that
Luciana did a wonderful job today,
congratulations – she rode really,
really well and she’s catching me
up! It will all come down to Doha
again but this is the best for the
sport and it will be very exciting
to the end. On a personal basis, I’m
delighted with my horse, I thought
she jumped fantastic today, I
thought Frank has done an
unbelievable job – I think he got
the right result, the first round
was very difficult, I’ll have to see
why I had the last fence down, but
apart from that she jumped a
fantastic round and I was really
pleased with her."
Luciana Diniz,
winner: "First of all I want to
congratulate and say thank you to
Edouard [de Rothschild] – he is the
owner of Winningmood and without him
this wouldn’t be possible so thank
you. And then to my whole team, to
everyone who made this show
possible, the organisers, I have
been to Vienna many many years now –
I was 2nd in the Grand Prix here,
and 3rd, and to win today was very
special for me. I would like to
thank all of you for all these years
you have been supporting us and
looking after my horses, I’m just so
so happy. And I just want to say,
Scott, last week I said, I have only
one chance to beat you, it’s to win
the next two Grand Prix out of
three, so last week I was second,
this week I won, and I’m really
looking forward to going to Doha, it
will be really great for everyone.
"Winningmood was
in a winning spirit, he wanted to
win."
Harrie Smolders,
second place: "Kevin tried to put a
lot of pressure on us, my horse
probably wasn’t the fastest of the
three, so I wanted to go clear, that
for sure, and I wanted to put as
much pressure on Luciana, but she
knew what she had to do and she did
well, so all congrats to her."
Kevin Staut,
third place; "I had to try something
but this evening I’m a happy loser
because my mare Silvana [HDC] did a
good job, it was a tough course, the
first round, but sure Frank did a
fantastic job tonight and I
congratulate him. The jump-off, it
was really exciting to watch, after
my round, and even if I would like
to win, it was a fantastic sport and
great show and we have to
congratulate all the organisation
for this really nice show."
