2012 US Olympian and history-maker Reed Kessler was determined to shake off yesterday’s second place finish and knowing the young 19 year old’s competitive drive, today was an opportunity to beat yesterday’s winner Patrice Delaveau and land a Longines Global Champions Tour winning title. Reed was aboard her new mare Soraya l’Obstination and won with an impressive time of 55.99 seconds; almost a whole second faster then Patrice Delaveau and Quenndal de Lojou HDC.

“I’m really happy. My horse jumped beautifully. I’m really happy to win” said Kessler following the prize giving.

The mare is in fact a half-sister to Reed’s top Olympic mount Cylana and although Reed felt that their was a lot of work to be done this winter, it seems that Soraya has stepped up to be one of Reed’s top speed horses.

Having brought the young mare to Wellington this winter, the unorthodox mare was fast but eccentric and Reed admitted there might be quite a lot of work ahead of her but Reed has earned top placements with the chestnut mare both in Chantilly and Valkenswaard, admitting she is equally smitten and overjoyed with the fast developments.

“She’s really stepped up to become a super speed horse. She handled the course beautifully today.”

We asked Reed what she thought of the course. “It was difficult. My horse actually jumps better on the left lead and the entire course had very difficult turns off the right lead so when I originally walked the course I didn’t think it would suit her very much.”

Patrice Delaveau, who won yesterday’s first competition, finished second today aboard Quenndal de Lojou HDC. Kessler not only won today’s title aboard a relatively new mount for Kessler Show stables but she also bested some very fast riders including Hans-Dieter Dreher, Doda Miranda, Scott Brash and Katharina Offel. Not to mention Patrice Delaveau, of course.

As we look to this afternoon’s exciting Grand Prix competition, young riders such as Reed Kessler will battle it out with some of the longest standing top riders in our sport, including Ludger Beerbaum, Marcus Ehning and Michael Whitaker.

True to our sport’s lack of discrimination, multiple generations of equestrian talent will come together this afternoon to try and lay claim to the ninth Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix title of the season. We wish all our riders the very best of luck and look forward to congratulating our ninth Grand Prix winner here in Valkenswaard.

Source: LGCT