Exquisite selection for the 30th finale

Matthias Alexander Rath - Thiago GS © Sportfotos Lafrentz

The NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL celebrates its 30th birthday during the second Schafhof edition from December 18 to 19. The NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL made history last year: With five pairs over 75 percent in the final! The 2021 season has gone one better: With eight pairs that have already qualified for the final with more than 75 percent. An exquisite selection of finalists for the 30th anniversary of the NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL. On Saturday from 3 p.m., the dressage youngsters will compete for the first time at the Schafhof in the entry competition, while on Sunday the 30th NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL Final will begin at 11.30 a.m. as part of the second Schafhof edition. Both competitions will be broadcast live on ClipMyHorse.TV and, in the tried and tested manner, each ride in the final will be commented on afterwards by the former head of training of the German Equestrian Federation (FN), Christoph Hess. One lady has qualified two horses at once for the round birthday final of the BURG-POKAL: European Team Champion Helen Langehanenberg. She has already won Olympic and World Championship team gold and was part of the winning European Championship team three times, in addition to four individual silver medals, but: she has never dominated in the final of the BURG-POKAL. This year she brings her finalists number nine and ten to the start, Beautiful Scarlett and Straight Horse Ascenzione. Both are exceptional mares, both have had terrific performances this season, and with Ascenzione, Langehanenberg has submitted the highest qualifying score of the season: 78.098 percent. 2021 could be YOUR final. But Langehanenberg faces illustrious competitors: Olympic squad rider Frederic Wandres, for example, who secured his final ticket on Quizmaster in Redefin with a proud 77.244 percent. Wandres is one of Germany's most successful riders, but this final will be his final premiere in the NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL. Home rider Matthias Alexander Rath, who has already won the Final twice, is this time in the saddle of the eight-year-old Thiago GS. The stallion is home-bred, by Totilas and out of Wahajama UNICEF, who had won the final herself in 2002. In 2012 she led the BURG-POKAL round of honors in the Festhalle on Burlington, and in 2021 she will be one of the final riders for the sixth time: Charlott-Maria Schürmann. She brings the nine-year-old Danish gelding Absinth with her to the Schafhof. This is only an exemplary excerpt from the starter list of the exquisite BURG-POKAL-FINALISTS 2021. Two of the eight Ü75-percent finalists unfortunately cannot compete at the Schafhof, thus two highly exciting couples have taken their chance as latecomers: For Ann-Christin Wienkamp and Finley Dorothee Schneider and Salvina move up, for Ingrid Klimke and Firlefranz come Daniel Bachmann Andersen and Caracciola. Rarely have the men been so strongly represented in the finals as in this decade's birthday. Whereas in 2020 there were three men in the saddles of the finalists, in 2021 there are five! This drastically increases the chances that in the three decades of the BURG-POKAL a third gentleman could actually manage to decide the final in his favor. So far, only Klaus Balkenhol in 1993 with Ehrengold and Matthias Alexander Rath in 2014 with Es Fangar's Samba King and in 2020 with Destacado have managed this. The most successful rider in the series is still the now seven-time Olympic champion Isabell Werth. In 1994 she took part in the BURG-POKAL final for the first time, has since qualified 18 horses for the final and won it four times - no one else has managed that. In 2021, she will not be in the saddle herself, but she will be at the start as trainer and boss of Niklaas Feilzer and Leo Löwenherz. And these are the finalists at the 30th NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL Final: