Aachen, 06. July 2008

Albert Zoer wins the ROLEX Grand Prix, the Grand Prix of Aachen
Ludger Beerbaum beaten by four hundredths of a second

The last will be the first - this also applied for the ROLEX Grand Prix, the Grand Prix of Aachen. The Dutch rider, Albert Zoer, rode into the jump-off last and pipped Ludger Beerbaum, who had been leading the field, at the post. Zoer rode a fantastic round and reached the finish line in a time of 48.99 seconds with the nine-year-old KWPN gelding, Sam, and thus claimed his second Grand Prix victory within two weeks, after recently winning the Grand Prix in Rotterdam. "Sam has got a huge gallop stride and I knew that I could ride fast. We were really quick in the last turn after the oxer and that secured us the victory," the 32-year-old rider stated. "He is actually my second horse, my top horse is of course my Olympic Games candidate, Oki Doki. He came to us as a four-year-old and we have brought him on slowly," Zoer explained.

Ludger Beerbaum secured second place in the last competition at the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO 2008, on All Inclusive NRW, with a clear round in 49.03 seconds, ahead of Carsten-Otto Nagel on Corradina. "Our round in the jump-off was almost perfect, but obviously not perfect enough. We lost a bit of time in the turn before the last but one fence," said Beerbaum, who has been riding the sun of the breeding stallion from Warendorf, Arpeggio, for three years. Beerbaum's sister-in-law, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, also jumped clear with Shutterfly, but took a few seconds longer to finish the course (50.69), putting her into fifth place in the final ranking. Eight riders qualified for the jump-off, four of whom were representing Germany. Carsten Otto-Nagel with the grey mare Corradina was first to jump. The 45-year-old rider from Wedel, Germany jumped clear with the Corrado daughter in the time of 49.83 seconds. Otto-Nagel has taken part in 15 Nations' Cups and won team gold at the European Championships in Hickstead in 1999. "The course was very challenging, so I am all the more delighted with my result," Otto-Nagel commented. The course designer Frank Rothenberger reported: "My intention was to build a course where the faults would be equally distributed among the fences. The difficult jumps in the first round turned out to be the water jumps in the double combination and the second but last oxer." The clocked stopped at 50.68 seconds for Beezie Madden, who had hoped to win the ROLEX Grand Prix for the second year running, fourth place was the end result for her. With her World Championship horse Authentic, a 13-year-old KWPN gelding by Guidam, Madden's target is now set on the Olympic Games in Hong Kong. The 44-year-old rider lives in Milwaukee and rungs a show-jumping stables together with her husband John Madden.

The fourth German competitor was Holger Wulschner on Clausen. The 12-year-old Holstein Colato son, who is incidentally a half-brother to Christian Ahlmann's Coster, unfortunately picked up 8 faults (49.67) and finished eighth. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson collected four faults in the jump-off with the KWPN gelding Ninja La Silla by Guidam. The Swedish rider won silver with the team at the Olympic Games in Athens and came fourth in the individual classification. McLain Ward knocked the last fence with his Olympic horse Sapphire, who he won team gold in Athens and team silver at the FEI World Equestrian Games with. The Belgian mare descends from Darco.