06 April '26
Strong start for Beauville Z N.O.P. in the Longines Global Champions Tour
© Longines Global Champions Tour
We had to wait a while, but the new season of the Longines Global Champions Tour officially started last weekend! Due to the cancellation of the stage in Doha last month, the season opener shifted to the sunny beach of Miami Beach last weekend, with a lot of top combinations immediately making their appearance in the ring. One of them were Dutchman Maikel van der Vleuten and his faithful partner Beauville Z N.O.P., who were immediately on target in Florida, making an excellent start to their season.
As in past years, Maikel van der Vleuten is once again part of the Madrid In Motion team this year and their start to the season was immediately promising. Indeed, during the team competition of the Global Champions League on Friday, Madrid In Motion managed to be the only team to go flawlessly over the two rounds, impressively writing this first round of the season on their record. In the second round over a height of 1.60m, van der Vleuten was part of the team with his now 16-year-old gelding Beauville Z N.O.P., the son of Bustique and Jumpy des Fontaines who was born to breeder Pascal Habets. Van der Vleuten and Beauville Z N.O.P. did what they do best and with a clear round they thus had an important share in the Madrid victory.
The strong performance during this second round of the Global Champions League also ensured that van der Vleuten and Beauville Z N.O.P. were also automatically qualified for the LGCT Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. There too, they once again confirmed that they are a rock-solid combination, as after another clear first round they were among the 13 combinations that managed to qualify for the jump-off. Being the second combination, they again did not make a mistake and with a finishing time of 46.85 seconds they finally secured a nice 5th place.
Van der Vleuten's teammate in the decisive round of the Global Champions League on Friday was Luxembourg rider Victor Bettendorf and he too could count on a Z-horse for his clear round. Indeed, he was in the saddle of the 11-year-old stallion Atchoum de la Roque Z, a son of Armitages Boy and Bentley van de Heffinck bred in France by EURL Top Stallions Company. So with that flawless round, they too were allowed to take a win.
The bronze in the team classification went to Cairo Pharaohs and in that, too, a Z horse was part of the team. Indeed, during the second round, Dutch rider Pim Mulder sent the 13-year-old gelding Viktor Z (Verdi TN x Caretano Z - breeder: Freek Hoogenboom) to a clear round.
Between the Global Champions League on Friday and the LGCT Grand Prix on Sunday, there were also two five-star classes on the programme in Miami on Saturday, and in both classes 6th place coloured blue and yellow. In the 1.45m class, that honour was reserved for Italian rider Piergiorgio Bucci with the 14-year-old gelding Cortez van 't Klein Asdonk Z (Cornet Obolensky x Andiamo Z - breeder: Eddy Thomas), while in the 1.50m class it was Swiss Jane Richard and the 11-year-old stallion Aequitus vh Bergerhof Z (Andiamo Z x Limbus - breeder: Frank Damiaens) who took 6th place.
Two-star competition
The first stage of the Longines Global Champions Tour naturally received the most attention, but in addition to that, the past few days on Miami Beach have also seen two-star show jumping. The CSI2* Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon thereby formed the absolute apotheosis of the weekend and in it, it was the Z-horses who managed to dominate. Thus victory went to home rider Jacqueline Ruyle and the 15-year-old mare Cyramo Z, a daughter of Clarimo ASK and Vigo d'Arsouilles bred in the Netherlands by the Van Helmond brothers. In a jump-off for which only four combinations qualified, no one managed to keep it clear again. Ruyle and Cyramo Z saw a fault in the jump-off, but with a convincing finishing time of 34.66 seconds they were significantly faster than the competition.
But the silver in this CSI2* Grand Prix was also taken by a Z-horse thanks to Ruyle's compatriot Aley Russel and the 11-year-old mare Da Silva van 't Schaaphof Z, a daughter of Diamant de Semilly and Clinton from the breeding farm of Maurice Van De Walle. They also ran into 4 penalties in that jump-off, but needed 36.90 seconds to finish their round successfully.