Miami Beach: Katrin Eckermann wins Grand Prix
Miami Beach (fn-press). Great success for Katrin Eckermann (Sassenberg) at the Global Champions Tour leg in Miami Beach (Florida). With the mare Cala Mandia, she won the prize worth 300,000 euros. Her German colleague Tobias Meyer came fourth with Greatest-Boy.
Katrin Eckermann has been riding the dark chestnut mare Cala Mandia for almost three years. After a few starts and placements in advanced level jumping classes, the greatest success so far has come with the nine-year-old mare, daughter of Cornet Obolensky's grandson Capistrano. On the mother's side, Cala Mandia goes back to Valentino.
34 couples were on the starter list in the Grand Prix, the evaluation test for the Global Champions Tour, six of them mastered the round without any mistakes and secured participation in the jump-off. The Irishman Shane Sweetnam and the gelding Alejandro had set the fastest time of 35.73 seconds and were already considered the winners – until Katrin Eckermann intervened. With Cala Mandia, she finished the course, which was spectacularly located directly on the beach of Miami Beach, more than a second faster and had the victory and the prize money of 100,000 euros in her pocket.
The 23-year-old young Belgian star Gilles Thomas and his mare Luna van het Dennehof came in third. This pair also remained clear in the jump-off (36.04). Pleasing from a German point of view: Tobias Meyer achieved the fourth-best result. The 33-year-old German champion from 2021, who lives in the Netherlands, used the KWPN gelding Greatest-Boy H (0/39.4).
In the team competition of the Global Champions League, German couples also held their place at the top. The "Berlin Eagles" team with the two giants Ludger Beerbaum and Christian Kukuk relegated the competition to second place. Beerbaum and the OS mare Mila (by Monte Bellini) as well as Kukuk and the Belgian stallion Mumbai (by Diamant de Semilly) finished both rounds without a fault. The “Shanghai Swans”, for which Christian Ahlmann (Marl) started with the Oldenburg Solid Gold Z and Katrin Eckermann with Cala Mandia, came fourth. hen
