Aachen, 06. July 2008

Isabell Werth claims her fifth victory in the Deutsche Bank Prize
The Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen comes second

Her form is almost uncanny: Isabell Werth remained unbeaten at the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen 2008, after also winning the Deutsche Bank Prize, the Dressage Grand Prix of Aachen in the Grand Prix Freestyle with Satchmo: With a score of 80.15 percent, she triumphed in this competition despite a few mistakes in the flying-changes and half-passes. "I had a great feeling, the music has an emotional effect on me every time. We have altered the music from last year, since we received a lot of criticism that it contained too much singing. Originally it comprised of Vangelis melodies, but now it has been completely recomposed. The voice sounds more like an instrument now," Isabell Werth explained. "I hope that we can repeat our form at the Olympic Games as well, because Satchmo is going to have a short break before I prepare him for Hong Kong."
She then added: "There is no doubt about the fact that we have got to improve a few exercises, and the same applies to the other riders." Namely things didn't run smoothly for the remaining German riders: Nadine Capellmann finished seventh with Elvis VA on a score of 73.05 percent and Heike Kemmer only came eleventh, after receiving a score of 70.5 percent.

Hailed the "shooting star of Aachen", the Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen stood up to the pressure well, claiming second place with a score of 77.5 percent. "It is certainly no disgrace being placed behind Isabell Werth," laughed the 28-year-old English teacher. She is nominated as the reserve rider for the Olympic Games. "Unfortunately, we didn't qualify at the trials in the Netherlands, because Parzival was very spooky. But he seems to feel comfortable here in Aachen and I'd certainly like to come back." Cornelissen has only been riding at Grand Prix level for the past 18 months. She has only performed her freestyle routine comprising of rock'n'roll melodies four times. "It is not too difficult yet technically speaking, but we will constantly increase the degree of difficulty." Third place went to the Swiss rider Silvia Iklé on the 14-year-old gelding, Salieri CH, who scored 77.35 percent. "My horse gave a fresh performance, the tango music underlines his graceful movements, and we didn't make any big mistakes." She doesn't regret her decision not to compete at the Olympic Games. "It wasn't an easy decision to take, but I made it very consciously and in my opinion it was the right decision."

"The Danish rider Andreas Helgstrand ranked sixth on the nine-year-old Continue son Gredstedgards Casmir. "He was already a lot better on the warm-up area today and it is of course a reassuring feeling to know that the horse is performing well, when you enter the arena. He has continually improved and he gave a good performance," the rider, who is nominated for the Olympic Games, explained. The National Coach, Rudolf Zeilinger commented, "We will be travelling to Hong Kong with a team of your horses. I think this will be a great advantage considering the weather conditions. Although the horses will probably have less problems with the climate than the riders." The Swedish rider, Jan Brink, finished in seventh place behind Helgstrand. "Unfortunately, Briar made several mistakes, which was annoying. But he is motivated and fit, which is the most important thing. How does the saying go again? If the dress rehearsal goes wrong, the main performance will be a success, which is of course Hong Kong for us," Brink stated. The Swedish rider is also currently bringing on two aspiring young horses that are closely related to his Olympic horse: Briar's son Biggles (10) has already won Grand Prix competitions and his full-brother Okeanos (9) is almost ready to compete at Grand Prix level.