This week the Samsung Super League competition moves to Luzern, Switzerland for the CSIO Nations Cup of Switzerland competition. For the last decade the event has alternated between St Gallen and Luzern. This year the Swiss organizers have put together more than 300 volunteers to assist the expected 44,000 visitors to the event.
You would have to go back to 1997 to find the last time that the United States claimed victory in the Nations Cup of Switzerland. That event took place in St. Gallen. The last Nations Cup Victory in Luzern for the USA was in 1976.
Rain continued to cause problems throughout Europe. Luzern was no exception as they had been blanketed with downpours for most of the week. Although the footing seemed to be in fairly good condition, the organizing committee opted to combine the first two events scheduled for Thursday into a single event, the CSIO Goodwill Trophy. The event was just for Swiss riders and the committee waited until the later time of 11:00AM to send the event off.
The first international competition, the Celltec AG Prize, was a Table A against the clock (Art. 238.2.1) at 1.4m. Frances Bertran de Balanda won the event on New Day du Bois Philip. Thirteen of the 79 entries had clear rides including the USA’s Molly Ashe who was riding Jane Forbes Clark’s Vicomte D and finished in 10th place. Molly also competed in the event aboard Lutopia and had a rail finishing in 24th place. Other US performances included Candice King on Constantin 28 with 4 faults in 37th place, Christine McCrea on Costa with 20 faults finished in 70th place. Christine also retired with Vegas. Margie Engle who was scheduled to go with HC Perin did not go.
The Prize of the Casino of Luzern was the second international event of the day, a Table A with a jump off (Art. 238.2.2).
Six of the 47 riders had clean performances and entered the jump off. None of the American riders were clear. Christine McCrea aboard Promised land, Molly Ashe riding Neuville and Laura Kraut with Love Z each had 4 faults. Candice King and Tarco finished with two rails. The event ended in a tie between Christina Liebherr (SUI) riding L.B. Casanova and Elad Yqaniv aboard Casland. Each had a time of 43.50 seconds. Third place went to Daniel Etter who was on Peu A Peu at a time of 43.53. Three hundreds of a second separated the first three places.
At the draw for the Order of Go for tomorrows session, 5 of the Chef d’Equipes predicted another German Victory. Home Team Switzerland has targeted third spot as their objective.
With the German team consisting of Christian Ahlmann, Marcus Ehning, Marco Kutscher, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Alexander Schill it is difficult not to choose them.
1. Ireland
2. France
3. USA
4. Sweden
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. Great Britain
8. Switzerland
Weather continues to be a problem and again the schedule has changed with the first order of go for tomorrow’s Super League going at 2:45 Luzern time and the second order of go at 5:15 Luzern time. “We are doing this to save the horses - the ground is already a little bit heavy and we want to do everything we can to help them” said Show Director Urs Schiendorfer.
S5 - SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE WITH FEI SWITZERLAND
Starting List
1 IRL - IRELAND (Team Manager: R. SPLAINE)
82 WORLD CRUISE BREEN Shane
70 HIPPICA KERMAN HANLEY Cameron
106 HERITAGE TRANSMISSION HUGHES Marion
31 EFFECTIVE DOYLE Edward
2 FRA - FRANCE (Team Manager: J.M BONNEAU)
5 CROCUS GRAVERIE BERTRAN DE BALANDA G.
44 EPHEBE FOR EVER*LA SILLA HERMON Christian
67 JUMPY DES FONTAINES DELAVEAU Patrice
19 FIRST DE LAUNAY*HN ANGOT Florian
3 USA - UNITED STATES (Team Manager: G. MORRIS)
58 PROMISED LAND MCCREA TRIBBLE C.
101 TARCO KING Candice
85 NEUVILLE ASHE Molly
133 MISS INDEPENDENT KRAUT Laura
4 SWE - SWEDEN (Team Manager: E. NOOREN)
63 H&M MAGIC BENGTSSON FREDRICSON Peder
30 CONAN LUNDBÄCK Helena
15 CALIBRA II SCHULTZ Lotta
35 NOSTRADAMUS JOHANSSON Svante
5 GER - GERMANY (Team Manager: K. GRAVEMEIER)
111 SHUTTERFLY MICHAELS−BEERBAUM M.
105 MONTENDER KUTSCHER Marco
1 CÖSTER AHLMANN Christian
69 GITANIA EHNING Marcus
6 NED - NETHERLANDS (Team Manager: R. EHRENS)
6 BMC NASSAU DUBBELDAM Jeroen
14 AUDI’S JIKKE VAN DER VLEUTEN Eric
2 OLAF THIJSSEN Leon
12 EUROCOMMERCE BERLIN SCHRÖDER Gerco
7 GBR - GREAT BRITAIN (Team Manager: D. RICKETTS)
28 ARKO III SKELTON Nick
104 PEPPERMILL WHITAKER John
9 NIKO IV MAHER Ben
76 MOZART DES HAYETTES WHITAKER Michael
8 SUI - SWITZERLAND (Team Manager: R. GRASS)
34 L.B. NO MERCY LIEBHERR Christina
3 LA TOYA III FUCHS Markus
130 PRINCIPAL MÄNDLI Beat
114 UNIQUE X CH SCHWIZER Pius
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