23 Apr BEMER Riders Tour: Home crowd victory for Patrick Stühlmeyer
(Hagen a.T.W.) The first rider in the second round of the Deutsche Kreditbank AG Grand Prix delivered a round that no competitor was able to beat: Patrick Stühlmeyer (Mühlen) and Drako de Maugre won the BEMER Riders Tour rating competition and the opening round of the series at Horses & Dreams in Hagen in a speedy 43.48 seconds. With this, the Rider of the Year 2021 scored the first ranking points of the new season.
Stühlmeyer had already finished second once before in Hagen and had set himself the goal of winning the Grand Prix in front of his home crowd: “My plan for the second round was to put all my eggs in one basket. My horse is generally very fast, but after me there were some quick combinations who also compete at five-star level.” He couldn’t watch a couple of times, admitted Stühlmeyer, who as a native of Osnabrück could count on the support of family, friends and fans around the jumping stadium at Hof Kasselmann. With the Kannan son Drako de Maugre, who was purchased by Paul Schockemöhle last year, he has a top horse under the saddle for the coming season.
The first of a total of eight stages in the 2023/24 BEMER Riders Tour season proved to be quite a challenge. Course designers Klaus Holle and Olaf Herrmann had set the bar a little higher on the fifth day of Horses & Dreams meets Sweden. Only three combinations managed a penalty-free first round, a rarity. A total of 13 riders were then allowed to compete in the second round. Young Irish rider Eoin McMahon placed second in 44.09 seconds with the grey Holsteiner mare Chakra by Casall. McMahon has been a member of Team Beerbaum since September 2018. Another international athlete completed the podium: Olympic participant Eiken Sato (JPN) piloted the Chacco-Blue gelding Chadellano JRA, which he has only been riding for a short time, to third place.
Opening on a high level
Creator of the Riders Tour, Paul Schockemöhle acknowledged with a twinkle in his eye that he was not entirely dissatisfied with the outcome of the competition, as he is the owner of Drako de Maugre and breeder of Chadellano JRA “We have experienced a great show here with excellent facilities, family-like and in a good atmosphere. Overall, this was an excellent BEMER Riders Tour leg. The course was very difficult, especially for the beginning of the season. But in the qualification yesterday 18 pairs remained clear, so the course builder made it harder today to make it exciting. It was at least four-star level. When Patrick was through, I knew that it was difficult to top that,” Schockemöhle explained afterwards.
The group of the best 13 was also joined by a number of riders who are still among the younger athletes in terms of age: The U25 rider Teike Carstensen (Behrendorf) or the 26-year-old Ulrich Hensel (Ortenberg) were also able to collect valuable ranking points today. “The BEMER Riders Tour has once again demonstrated its ambition to give new talents the opportunity to break through on the international stage,” Bernhard Bock, Head of Marketing at BEMER Int. AG, also emphasised.