Following their win in the grand prix on Thursday (17 July), Germany’s Matthias Rath and the black stallion Totilas held their form to win the grand prix special today (19 July).
The pair performed a relaxed and flowing test to sore 84.53%, beating Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro into second place by just 1.37%.
Looking much more relaxed, Valegro made a strong start, but costly mistakes in the one-time changes and passage to piaffe transitions saw their scores drop to as low as five.
Despite the unfortunate errors, the pair were nearly back to their best, consistently scoring nines throughout, plus a ten for their two-time changes and extended trot, netting a final score of 83.12%.
Charlotte’s trainer and confident Carl Hester tweeted after their performance: “Nearly back to normal for Valegro and Charlotte. Tomorrow, hopefully, will be their turn!”
Germany’s Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill NRW improved on their grand prix performance to earn 82.08% for third, and last to go Isabell Werth and Bella Rose 2 also bettered their grand prix percentage by nearly 2% to net 81.47%, again finishing fourth.
The next best Britain, Michael Eilberg and Half Moon Delphi, moved up two places from their grand prix placing to finish eighth with 74.71%.
Don’t miss our full report from Aachen in Horse & Hound magazine (24 July, 2014)
