The magic is back in Paris

Paris, November 2016 – The second season of the Longines Masters Series got off to an excellent start in Los Angeles in October, with a resounding thumbs up from both public and riders. Now all eyes are turned to the leg in Paris, where Patrice Delaveau made a huge impression in 2015 with his tremendously powerful victory on Lacrimoso*HDC, when he shared his joy and emotions with an equally delighted French crowd.

The recent leg in Los Angeles has once again proved that the Longines Masters series shows the sport at its very best, making it seem even more magical and emotionally charged. There’s something going on every day in and around the arena, with competitions as well as events in the Prestige Village.

Everyone remembers the fantastic concert by LEJ at the Paris leg last year along with the procession of stars mingling with the crowds and at the Pro-Am for Charity fancy dress class, the wonderful after parties and the intense sporting moments. Like the one when, contrary to all expectations, Belgium’s Grégory Wathelet was victorious in the Longines Speed Challenge that everyone thought Bertram Allen would win. The winner in Los Angeles, the young Irish rider later made up for it in Hong Kong.

A similar thing happened in the Longines Grand Prix. The winner of the Los Angeles leg, Germany’s Marco Kutscher on Van Gogh, was expected to lift the Longines Masters “Grand Slam Indoor of Show Jumping” trophy for a second time. But on the day, Patrice Delaveau and Lacrimoso rode up a storm and Marco had to wait for the Hong Kong leg to become the first rider in the history of the Longines Masters to scoop the super bonus jackpot.

This year, the Super Grand Slam Bonus is even bigger, a record €2,250,000 will go to the rider who manages to achieve three consecutive victories in the correct order: Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong. And the man who is now in with a chance is team bronze medallist in Rio, Germany’s Daniel Deusser who won the Longines Grand Prix in Los Angeles on Equita van’t Zorgvliet.

The Parisian audience will of course be rooting for “their” Olympic champions, alongside World number 2, Simon Delestre. The French team particularly shone in Los Angeles, notably with a superb triple (Staut, Delestre, Epaillard) in the EMIRATES Gold Cup. There were also three French riders in the Longines Grand Prix jump-off. The gold medallists will be performing in front of their home crowd in Paris for the first time since Rio. The reunion is likely to be a pretty noisy affair!

3 November 2016