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Kasprzak rode Donnperignon to victories

May 7, 2012

Anna Kasprzak, barely out of Young Riders, rode Donnperignon to victories in the CDI3* Grand Prix and the Olympic Grand Prix Special while fellow Dane and Olympic medal winning pair Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Digby placed second in both classes as the pace of Olympic qualifying heated up with less than three months to the start of dressage in London.

The Grand Prix on Saturday was rife with story lines–this was the first of two competitions in Europe in which Australia will select its Olympic team and Lyndal Oatley and Sandro Boy came out on top. It was also the first concerted effort by three of Colombia’s four team prospects to earn minimum qualifying scores, but they all fell short.

And Hiroshi Hoketsu, the 70-year-old Japanese rider scored 66.085 per cent on Whisper 115, his 15-year-old mare, that he plans to compete in London for his third Olympics–in dressage at the Beijing Games four years ago and 44 years on from his Olympic debut as a jumper rider in Tokyo.

At the other end of the age scale was Anna, aged just 22, and Donnperignon, that her family bought from Christoph Koschel after he had won team medals with Germany at the 2010 World Equerstrian Games in Kentucky and the 2011 European Championships.

Anna and the 13-year old Finnish warmblood scored 76.000 per cent, the unanmous choice for first place by all five judges with Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Digby, entering their sixth years as an elite partnership, second on 72.574 per cent.

Poland’s Beata Stremler and Martini–the rider is also a relative youngster at age 28–placed third on 71.128 per cent, one spot ahead of Isabell Werth, Germany’s most decorated dressage rider, aboard her 2007 World Cup champion moubt, Warum Nicht FRH, on 70.702 per cent.

The Grand Prix Special Sunday was won by Anna and Donnperignon with a score of 77.400 per cent with Nathalie and Digby on 75.467 per cent and Great Britain’s Emma Hindle on the 15-year-old Diamond Hit third on 72.778 per cent.

Source Dressage-News.com