CSI5*-W London (GBR): Daniel’s not Soory now

German star Daniel Deusser produced a flying round on chance ride Soory de l’Hallali to win the Levy Restaurants Snowman Stakes at Olympia, The London International Horse Show.

This was a new style of competition, in which riders were drawn into seven groups, with the best score from each group going through to the jump-off. When five of those riders were British – Michael, Robert and William Whitaker, Scott Brash and Ben Maher – the packed crowd was excitedly hopeful of a first British winner in Olympia’s jumping classes.

However, to groans, none of the home quintet could match up to Daniel’s speedy round and it was Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs, riding Uzo van het Hobos Z, who came closest. Ben Maher was third on the big bay gelding Wings Sublieme.

Daniel, 33, the reigning Longines FEI World Cup champion, explained that the little Selle Francais chestnut mare Soory de l’Hallali, is normally ridden by his boss, Stefan Conter’s 15-year-old daughter Zoe.

“It was our first class together and it was a super opportunity for a horse like this, as she is naturally very quick and, as she’s small, could naturally do the distances much faster than the bigger horses like William’s and Ben’s,” said Daniel. “The format was a bit different as you could go clear and still not go through to the jump-off, but it’s fun to do something different.”

Daniel, who is based with the Conter family’s Stephex Stables near Mechelen, Belgium, is a former stable jockey to Jan Tops and Franke Sloothaak, and is one of the brightest stars on the international jumping circuit. “I’ve had the best year of my life,” he said. “I’m in a good position with lots of promising horses coming on.”

He rides Carriere in Sunday’s FEI Longines World Cup qualifier.

Earlier this afternoon the arena resounded to excited cheers as the first round of the FEI Driving World Cup took place. Britain’s Dan Naprous, driving on a wild card, was the pacesetter, followed by the other wild card, five-time World Cup champion Boyd Exell from Australia.

After Exell’s less-than-happy round yesterday when his 20 penalties put him in fifth place, he drove both fast and accurately today to take the lead by a big margin. This gives him the advantage of being last to drive in tomorrow’s final round.

Seasoned Dutch campaigners Koos de Ronde and Ijsbrand Chardon came closest to his time with Chardon looking as if he might take the lead as he continued to drive clear. However a ball down right at the end of the course added five penalties to his score and pushed him into second place. Fredrik Persson from Sweden, the only driver to post a clear round, was third.

Source: Olympia Horse Show