Olympic dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin wins freestyle competition at prestigious Aachen Show, Germany
Sunday 20 July 2014 17:07, UK
Olympic dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin put an uncharacteristically poor grand prix performance behind her on Sunday to win the freestyle competition at the prestigious Aachen Show in Germany.
The British star won the freestyle aboard her London 2012 horse Valegro, and will bid for a clean sweep of Olympic, European and World titles in just over five weeks' time.
But the return to top-flight competition of Dutch stallion Totilas promises to make that treble bid a tough proposition.
Dujardin could only manage sixth in the grand prix behind Totilas and his German rider Matthias Rath, a combination that also captured Aachen's grand prix special crown, with the British challenger finishing second.
Rath and Totilas did not appear in the freestyle event, which went Dujardin's way on a score of 87.9 per cent that secured a 34,000-euros top prize. German riders Helen Langehanenberg and Isabell Werth were second and third, respectively.
There was no joy, though, for leading British showjumpers Scott Brash and Ben Maher in Sunday's Rolex Grand Prix.
Scotsman Brash, the current world No 1, had two fences down on Hello Sanctos, while world ranked number two rider Maher collected four faults with Cella.
Germany's Christian Ahlmann and Codex One triumphed after a five-horse jump off.
In the eventing competition, Oxfordshire-based Izzy Taylor and Orlando were the highest-placed British combination, claiming fourth spot behind an all-German top three of Sandra Auffarth (Opgun Louvo), Ingrid Klimke (FRH Escada) and Michael Jung (La Biosthetique-Sam).
Two of Great Britain's World Equestrian Games combinations - William Fox-Pitt and Chilli Morning, and Zara Phillips with High Kingdom - finished ninth and 25th respectively.
