BASEL city’s St Jakobshalle arena calendar is packed with ‘big ticket’ events this spring, between hosting this weekend’s Longines FEI World Cup finals and, next month, the Eurovision Song Contest.
Although it’s the first time that Basel, near the French-German border, will host the dressage, show jumping and vaulting finals, Geneva had already played host in 1996 and 2010.
And the World Cup finals concept was the brainchild of Swiss journalist and author Max Amman, the recipient of a special award at Basel CHI in January. “The World Cup was my dream, totally,” said Amman, who secured the sponsorship of Swedish car manufacturer Volvo in the final’s earlier years.
Now sponsored by Longines, the World Cup finals typically alternate between Europe and North America, while last year, Riyadh became the first Middle Eastern host city.
Will the 2024 reigning champions defend their titles? Yes, Henrik von Eckermann (who won back-to-back show jumping World Cup titles with the phenomenal King Edward in 2023 and 2024) and Patrik Kittel, who brought off a Swedish-rider double with a dressage win in Riyadh last year, both return.
However, there’s a change of horse power for the Swedes; von Eckermann brings Iliana to Basel, while instead of Touchdown, Kittel will rely on Forever Young HRH. Kittel’s closest rivals include Germany’s Isabell Werth, with her Basel freestyle winner DSP Quantaz, and Great Britain’s Lottie Fry and her Paris Olympics dual bronze medallist horse, Glamourdale.
It’s rare to see ‘Eliminated’ after King Edward’s impressive record. However, a rare miscommunication saw von Eckermann and King Edward part ways during the Paris Olympics individual final. At Geneva CHI in December, von Eckermann announced that King Edward would bypass the remaining World Cup qualifiers and compete in Wellington instead.
Earlier this month, the now 15-year-old King Edward won €71,000 for his Grand Prix third place in Florida to add to his €4.2 million earnings. So von Eckermann will rely instead on the Dutch-bred Iliana.
Home favourites
Markus Fuchs became the first Swiss rider to win a World Cup final (Tinka’s Boy, 2001) and his nephew Martin made it patently obvious at the post-World Cup qualifier press conference back in January that winning a second World Cup final on home ground was one of his main targets in 2025.
Jessica Kürten recorded a runner-up place with Castle Forbes Libertina in the 2006 World Cup final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
He was fourth in the World Cup qualifier at Basel with Commissar Pezi, then banked more qualifying points with a Bordeaux win on Conner Jei, one of his two qualified horses for the final. Incidentally, Conner Jei’s owner Adolfo Juri, received his Swiss Owner of the Year award at that Longines CHI Classics Basel show.
Fuchs is bidding to win his second World Cup title, having already won three years ago in Leipzig with Chaplin.
More Swiss riders to have claimed a World Cup title include Beat Mändli, who won on Ideo du Thot at the 2007 final in Las Vegas and three-time champion Steve Guerdat.
However, back surgery for a herniated disc has meant Guerdat will have to sit out the 2025 final, which leaves Fuchs and Edouard Schmitz as the two Swiss contenders.
“It is difficult to accept,” Guerdat said in a social media post last month. “We were fully focused on performing well in our home country. But I have to put my health above my ambitions!”
As a matter of Swiss pride, both Fuchs and Guerdat have opted out of making themselves available for the Longines League of Nations Cup series this year after St Gallen, cancelled last year due to weather conditions, was dropped from the 2025 league.
“Nations Cups are very important to me and it is always a great honour to represent Switzerland in a Nations Cup. I fully support Swiss Equestrian.
“The atmosphere at the Swiss Nations Cup in St Gallen, for example, or at other traditional tournaments in equestrian countries, is incomparable.
“There are fantastic tournaments with a great atmosphere all over the world. That is exactly what I miss at events that are organised more for an exclusive audience than for the horse-loving public - I cannot understand the FEI’s strategy regarding the Longines League of Nations,” Guerdat stated.
Martin Fuchs backed up his teammate’s decision, saying: “Nations Cups hold a very high value for me. I view it critically that the best traditional tournaments, which have shaped the history of our sport, are not considered in the LLN calendar in order to support tournaments that, in my opinion, have little audience and prestige. I will be available for Switzerland in all further Nations Cups this season and look forward to a successful year.”
Daniel Coyle and Incredible on their way to winning the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup qualifier in Ocala \ FEI/Shannon Brinkman
Irish hopes
Back at the Basel qualifier in early January, Denis Lynch was pragmatic about his chances of qualifying with Vistogrand for the final. Despite finishing second in the Amsterdam qualifier the following week, the Western European league points didn’t quite add up for the Tipperary man, competing on the Global Champions Tour in Mexico last weekend.
The sole Irish rider for Basel then is Daniel Coyle, who qualified as an ‘extra athlete’ in North America’s East Coast league standings. He travels with Incredible, his horse for the Ocala Nations Cup, in which the Irish team finished fourth.
Coyle won two World Cup qualifiers last year at Leipzig and Amsterdam, with his future Paris Olympics horse Legacy and bypassed the final in Riyadh last April.
Both Darragh Kenny and Shane Sweetnam were also eligible for Basel through the ‘extra athlete’ route, but have opted not to compete, as have Karl Cook (West USA league), 2017 champion McLain Ward and Kent Farrington.
Farrington cited the proximity of the World Cup final to the Winter Equestrian Festival in an increasingly crowded international show jumping calendar.
Which all means that American hopes this year depend on Katie Dinan, Lillie Keenan, McKayla Langmeier and Alise Oken. Laura Kraut and Baloutinue were last minute withdrawals on Monday.
Another American rider, Rich Fellers, won the 2012 final with Flexible, the sole Irish Sport Horse to record a World Cup title win. Gothenburg was also the lucky setting for Flexible’s sire Cruising and Trevor Coyle’s runner-up result in the 1999 final, won that year by Rodrigo Pessoa and Baloubet du Rouet.
Jessica Kürten is the second Irish rider to have recorded a runner-up place. She and Castle Forbes Libertina finished second in the 2006 final, which made a one-time appearance in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Eddie Macken finished joint-third with Carrolls of Dundalk in the inaugural World Cup final in 1979. The first World Cup champion was the late Hugo Simon with Gladstone and the Austrian rider would go on to carve his name in the final’s history books by winning a further two titles after a back-to-back double with E.T FRH (1996, 1997).
Simon’s fellow countryman Max Kühner started Thursday’s first round aboard the Mark Sherry-bred EIC Up Too Jacco Blue, while Marcus Ehning has now rerouted DSP Revere to Basel’s three-star classes running in conjunction with the World Cup.
Castlefield Cornelius, ridden during the 2018 season by Ger O’Neill, was bred in the UK by Sue Jaggar, which means that EIC Up Too Jacco Blue looks set to be the one Irish-bred competing in this year’s final. He’ll have at least one Irish fan amongst the spectators.
“I was booked to go, but unfortunately, had to cancel this morning - too much work on. My business partner, Imelda Creighton, is going,” his breeder Mark McSherry told The Irish Field this week.
Martin Fuchs and Chaplin, winner of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final 2022 in Leipzig \ FEI/Richard Juilliart
Europe’s year?
With a strong start list after the Western European league, Basel may well continue the European riders’ run of victories in recent finals. Kevin Staut easily topped this league and another flying Frenchman in with a real chance of another podium result is Julien Epaillard.
Second last year in Riyadh with Dubai du Cedre, Epaillard won the Basel World Cup qualifier with the home-bred Donatello D’Auge.
Ben Maher’s exciting Point Break also had a good dress rehearsal in the St Jakobshalle arena in January, finishing fifth to the French pair. Most recently, Maher and the Swedish-bred won a good 1.55m class in Wellington last week. The three-time Olympic gold medallist will be riding with a broken foot this weekend after a non-horse related accident last week.
Maher’s British teammate Robert Whitaker and the homebred Vermento represents two generations of the Whitaker clan and performers. Robert’s father John is a two-time World Cup champion with the great Milton (1990, 1991) and competed Argento, Vermento’s sire, on the Global Champions Tour and Nations Cup circuits.
The considerable fan club of Richard Vogel’s United Touch S will look forward to his second World Cup final appearance, having finished eighth in his debut at Omaha in 2023.
Dutch riders are also in with a strong chance. Dual Olympic individual bronze medallist pair Maikel van der Vleuten and Beauville N.O.P are in the shake-up, as are Paris teammate Kim Emmen and Imagine, plus Willem Greve had both Grandorado TN N.O.P and Highway TN N.O.P listed on Monday’s start list.
Twenty-two countries, 40 show jumping riders and 47 show jumping horses - no Nations Cup fixture in St Gallen this year, but Switzerland will put on a World Cup final show.
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