Verdiamo Z finishes 6th in the Rolex Grand Prix of Windsor

While we enjoyed the fourth stage of the Longines Global Champions Tour in the Spanish capital Madrid, a second five-star competition took place over the past few days with the Royal Windsor Horse Show. Here, too, several Z-horses made their appearance in the competition ring throughout the weekend and managed to produce quite a few fine performances.

One of those fine performances came from the 13-year-old gelding Verdiamo Z, a son of Verdi TN combined with the blood of Andiamo Z. Verdiamo Z has been a strong tandem with his breeder/owner Jordy van Massenhoeve for several years and the pair managed to jump into the limelight in the Rolex Grand Prix on Sunday. In a jump-off for which ten combinations managed to qualify, van Massenhove and Verdiamo Z again kept all the bars in the reels and with a finishing time of 40.71 seconds they secured ^6th place in the standings.

Another notable combination under the shadow of Windsor Castle was US rider Laura Kraut and her 10-year-old gelding Trés Bien Z, a son of Toulon and Nabab de Rêve born to breeder Sander Dingen. Kraut and Trés Bien immediately started their competition promisingly on Friday when they jumped to a podium place in the 1.45m opening class. In both the first and second stages they left all obstacles untouched and with a finishing time of 25.11 seconds they secured^2nd place. In the 1.55m main class on Saturday, Kraut and Trés Bien additionally confirmed that good form with ^8th place. Then a fault in the first round unfortunately kept them out of the jump-off.

In the 1.45m opening class on Friday, Italian rider Lorenzo de Luca and the 12-year-old black mare Noblesse Vd Mespel Z, a breeding product of Bart Veldeman who combined the blood of Nabab de Rêve with that of Escudo I, also made it nicely clear twice, except that they needed 25.41 seconds to finish their second phase.

Besides the Rolex Grand Prix, a 1.50m speed class was also on the programme on Sunday, and in it two more Z-horses were among the prize winners. These included ^5th place for Gregory Wathelet with the 9-year-old stallion Special Cera du Maillet Z (Stakkato x Come ON - B: Elevage du Maillet) and ^8th place for British rider Jessica Mendoza with the 13-year-old gelding I-Cap CL Z (I M Special de Muze x Air Jordan Z - B: Alexander Liefsoens).