EXTENDING an astonishing winning streak at the 2021 Winter Equestrian Festival, German world number three rider Daniel Deusser showed once again why he’s one of the best, riding to the top of the five-star $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix with Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z, owned by Stephex Stables and Scuderia 1918.

This was Deusser’s seventh win at WEF, his fourth five-star class victory, and his third Grand Prix win, having captured two four-star Grands Prix victories: one with Killer Queen VDM and one with Tobago Z.

“Tobago has been my best horse for years,” Deusser said of the 13-year-old Zangersheide stallion by Tangelo Vd Zuuthoeve. “He has won many Grand Prix [classes], and also he really likes big grass arenas. He was in very, very good shape already the last couple of weeks here.

“It was a little bit in my favour today that I had to start second to last in the first round and last in the jump-off. I knew exactly what I had to do. And in the end, I have to say once it works out and the horse jumps how he jumps, it was not too difficult.”

Forty of the best riders in the world took to the grass Derby Field for the feature class of the whole WEF circuit. Eight pairs were clear in the first round to continue to the jump-off.

The first double clear in the jump-off came from Dutchman Harrie Smolders riding Bingo du Parc, owned by Copernicus Stables LLC. They set the time to beat at 36.74 seconds, which would eventually see them finish in third place.

Coming in just two-tenths of a second faster, Israel’s Daniel Bluman lowered the leading time to 36.54 seconds riding Gemma W, owned by Blue Star Investments and Over the Top Stables, to finish runner-up.

With the fastest time of the jump-off in 34.94 seconds, two-time Olympic team gold medallist McLain Ward (USA) was by far the speediest with the Beechwood Stables, LLC-owned Contagious, but a costly rail in the ‘b’ element of the Rolex double combination dropped him to fourth place.

As the last to go in the jump-off, Deusser had the advantage of knowing the time to beat and used it to his advantage, coming in just under the winning time in 36.40 seconds.

After an injury in late 2019, “Toby” only came back to competition at the end of the year in 2020. “He actually came back better than before. These couple of weeks here at WEF have given the horse a lot of strength again. Hopefully he stays exactly in that form, and I’m really looking forward to a great rest of season.

Deusser added: “We are in a very lucky position that we are able to ride here. Coming from Europe, we know in the moment with the current situation of Covid-19 how difficult it is to organise events, how difficult it is for the sport, and also how difficult life in Europe is in the moment. A big congratulations and also a big thank you to the organization and also to the sponsor that we are allowed to ride here.”