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European champion and newly crowned team world champion Richard Vogel can now add Brussels Stephex Masters champion to his list of titles.
Stephex CEO Stephan Conter has always looked to Aachen as the benchmark. “We’re not there yet and, when I think about it, we probably can’t equal Aachen, but it’s still the standard I want our Stephex Masters to measure itself against,” says the organiser, modestly but with no lack of ambition. Put the venue itself aside, however, and on a sporting level the Brussels Stephex Masters, a Rolex Series event, is certainly getting close. Two of this year’s podium finishers had been standing on a podium in Aachen only a week earlier, celebrating a world championship title. One thing is clear: the very best riders in the world enjoy coming to Brussels, and the Rolex Grand Prix presented by Audi is a class they want to win.
This year, that honour went to European champion and newly crowned team world champion Richard Vogel with Gangster Montdesir. Third place went to Stephex rider Daniel Deusser and Pepita van ’t Meulenhof, who, like Vogel, had been part of Germany’s gold medal-winning team at the World Championships the week before. Brazil’s Eduardo Pereira de Menezes and H5 Londentime split the two German world champions to take second.
The €500,000 Rolex Grand Prix presented by Audi was decided over two rounds, with the top 12 from the opening round returning for round two. Only five combinations had managed to keep a clean sheet first time out. By the end of the second round, just two remained faultless: Richard Vogel and Eduardo Pereira de Menezes. The Brazilian was second-last to go and left nothing on the table, taking every risk while keeping all the fences standing. His 42.85 seconds briefly put him in the lead, until Vogel entered the arena as the final starter and stopped the clock just a fraction faster in 42.34 seconds to take the win.
Eduardo Pereira de Menezes, who competed at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, had not been at the World Championships in Aachen. Before coming to Brussels, he competed at the five-star show in London, where he also jumped clear in the opening round. “I really mean it when I say the Stephex Masters is one of my favourite shows. The Rolex Grand Prix presented by Audi was one of the first dates I put in my calendar and I really wanted to do well here. I came incredibly close. In the end, the difference was only a fraction of a second, but there is certainly no shame in finishing second to Richard Vogel.”
The Brussels Stephex Masters had been firmly marked in Vogel’s calendar too, with Gangster Montdesir specifically saved for the occasion. The ten-year-old stallion by Kannan out of a Cornet Obolensky mare had been kept in peak condition at home by Vogel’s team while he was busy winning gold in Aachen. Asked whether the two German team members might not have needed a break after such a mentally demanding World Championship, their answer was typically relaxed. “The Brussels Stephex Masters is a holiday,” Vogel laughed. Surely a normal person would need some time to recover after a World Championship? “That’s the difference,” Daniel Deusser replied. “We riders aren’t normal people.”
Deusser finished third with Pepita van ’t Meulenhof (El Torreo de Muze x Carthago) after one rail in the first round. The eleven-year-old mare joined Stephex two and a half years ago and has developed rapidly under Deusser, progressing from 1.40m classes to 1.60m CSI5* Grand Prix level. In July, the pair already finished second in a CSI5* Grand Prix in Riesenbeck.
Simon Delestre and Gatsby du Tillard (President x Diamant de Semilly) finished fourth after one rail in the second round. His consistently strong performances throughout the week also earned Delestre the title of Best Rider of the CSI5* competition, together with the use of a Stephex 2-Horse Truck for an entire year.
The best Belgian result came from Frederic Vernaet and Orak d’Hamwyck, the twelve-year-old son of Tobago Z who was previously successfully ridden by Daniel Deusser. Vernaet was the only Belgian among the top 12 to qualify for the second round. After a clear first round, Belgian hopes were high, but a rail at the very first fence of round two put an end to their chances of a completely clean score. “That really hurt. Orak deserved to stay clear. He has jumped incredibly well all week and I had really set my sights on this. It’s frustrating to have that one rail, but that’s sport. You can definitely put this down as one of the highlights of my summer,” Vernaet concluded.
