A star is born

A nine-year-old mare helps put Luxembourg on the map and we celebrate a remarkable grey’s comeback

- JENNIFER DONALD

ON a night of true champions, 34-year-old Luxembourg rider Victor Bettendorf burst out of the pack to land the €1.25m (£1.04m) Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) Super Grand Prix. Riding the emerging megastar, nine-yearold mare Foxy De La Roque, Victor won with a commanding performance, the faster of just two double clears.

“This doesn’t feel real,” he said. “The previous winners of this class have been my heroes for my whole career and I can’t believe I have joined them as a winner.”

The LGCT season finale, at a new venue this year – outdoors but under the lights – hosted a stellar cast of 15 combinations, all of whom had earned a golden ticket from the series grands prix. Not all the winners elected to travel and some tickets were passed down the line, but an enthralling contest ensued.

Four combinations jumped clear in round one and all bar one came through to round two with eight faults or fewer, which meant that the margins were tighter than ever.

As the pressure spiralled, cool-headed young Belgian rider Gilles Thomas and the flashy chestnut stallion Ermitage Kalone (Catoki x Kannan) staked his claim on the silverware with the first double clear. He played to the powerful stallion’s strengths by leaving strides out, thus guaranteeing his spot on the podium.