This has never happened before in the Burg Cup Final: Even before Andrina Suter and Briatore NRW's final salute, the Frankfurt audience could no longer be contained and started clapping in rhythm. It was a sparklingly clean and expressive round - and the victory.
The Swiss rider, who had already competed five times at the European Championships as a young rider, had qualified two horses for the final and secured the top places with both of them. As in the first Burg Pokal leg in Mannheim, the seven-year-old stole the show from the nine-year-old in the final: Briatore won with 77.146 percent ahead of stablemate Del Curto with 76.097 percent. "Briatore was actually only supposed to gain experience in Mannheim," the 30-year-old told us. But the Belissimo son added victory on top of experience. "Today he marched in and marched through and was just super confident. But when the spectators clapped, my heart dropped. All I could think was: stop quickly and salute, no matter what." Behind the Swiss double leader, the Hessian professional trainer Thomas Wagner placed third with the nine-year-old Wynton's Sohn. His result: 73.268 percent.
Record finalist Dorothee Schneider was very unlucky in the final. In the warm-up competition on Thursday, she had taken second and third place with her finalists number 19 and 20, but in the final itself she could not manage a clear round. She finished the final in fifth place with Dante's Hit and seventh place with Quaterline. This means that Schneider will not be competing in the winner's competition on Saturday evening. There, winner Suter will compete with her nine-year-old Del Curto. "Briatore has done enough today, he is only seven, that's why Del Curto will go in the winner's prize." Also qualified for the winner's prize, the freestyle of the best three, are Thomas Wagner and Susan Pape with Harmony's V-Plus. On top of the double success, there was indeed another honourable mention: Andrina Suter also received the style prize from the jury for the best seat awarded annually at the Burg Cup Final. Susan Pape accepted the special honour prize for the best backward tack. It was the second time that the professional trainer from Hemmoor received this special prize at the Final. "The reverse is always a cliff in the training and then in the test from the strong canter to the stop, directly into the reverse and off again to the front. These are all incredibly short sequences in quick succession and therefore a real difficulty. And that is why I am very proud to have won this prize twice now."
The NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL has long since written its success story with 170 championship horses that have found their way into the sport through it. And the success story continues. The head judge of the 31st Final, Henning Lehrmann, emphasised: "That was marketing for our sport today: fine riding and harmonious riding. All foreigners envy us for the Nuremberg series, without this fantastic sponsor it would not be possible at all. This is great cinema!"
Andreas Politycki, Member of the Board of NÜRNBERGER Insurance, was happy to pass on the thanks to the host family Linsenhoff-Rath: "Great compliments to the Linsenhoff-Rath family. The festival hall is sold out again, the atmosphere is wonderful. It couldn't be more beautiful."
At the end, Politycki announced a concept change for the 32nd season of the Burg-Pokal: In 2023 there will only be eight instead of the current twelve stages of the NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL, but twelve pairs will still be admitted to the final: the eight winners and the four pairs with the best points in second place. Together with Tournament Director Matthias Alexander Rath, Politycki is already looking forward to the 32nd NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL Final in Frankfurt's Festhalle.
Special pair: Matthias Rath and Destacado
With more than 75 percent in the Grand Prix Special, the pair became winners in Stuttgart four weeks ago, and with almost 75 percent they secured victory in Frankfurt's Grand Prix Special, the Prize of the Liselott Schindling Foundation, on Saturday: Mattias Alexander Rath and Destacado FRH are a special pair. At nine years old, Destacado was the youngest in the starting field of the Special, as a stallion of the Schafhof Stud he is also a 'man with two jobs', but it is impressive with what aplomb he manages both. "Yesterday we had two big mistakes and I was not completely satisfied with some basic things," Rath summed up his two Frankfurt rounds self-critically. "Today was more or less as I had imagined it. I am really satisfied with Destacado today and we know that we still have homework to do - but we still have a few winter months to do that now." Matthias Rath has already won the NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL Final twice in Frankfurt, but this was the first victory for the show boss in Frankfurt's special.Second place went to the three-time Swedish Olympic participant Patrik Kittel on his ten-year-old young mare Forever Young HRH with 73.170 percent. With a new personal best, the Austrian WEG pair, Stefan Lehfellner and Roberto Carlos MT, placed third with 72.362 percent.
