Seppe Wouters and Quito de Mariposa crown winners of the Open Sires of the World

After we could already enjoy the first selection free jumping for the candidate stallions on the one hand during this third day of 'The Zangersheide International' and this afternoon the national classes for the young stallions on the other, the absolute apotheosis followed this evening with the famous Open Sires of the World.

A total of 27 combinations made their appearance tonight in this 1.45m high closing round, for which British track builder Rafael Suarez and his team had once again set a challenging task. The basic round consisted of 13 obstacles with 16 jumps and featured many obstacles along the way, such as 2 bidets and some colourful obstacles. In the end, 11 of these 27 combinations managed to get through the basic round unscathed, thus qualifying for the decisive jump-off.

That jump-off was therefore particularly exciting and nerve-racking, and in the end it was the young Belgian rider Seppe Wouters who emerged victorious. He did so with the 9-year-old chestnut stallion Quito de Mariposa, a son of Comme Il Faut and Air Jordan Z bred by Koen De Brabander and Alexander Oancea. Wouters and Quito de Mariposa only reappeared in the ring as the penultimate combination and provided a dazzling performance. Just like in the basic run, they could not be caught out on a fault and with a fantastic finishing time of 32.28 they made the Sentower explode!

The last contender was German Christian Ahlmann, winner of the 2024 edition. He was in the saddle of the 9-year-old stallion Untouched LB (United Touch S x Cornet Obolensky - B: Lena Bieler & Thomas Verhufen) and was clearly keen to add this prestigious class to his record of achievements again this year. He therefore pulled out all the stops and with a clear round in 32.32 seconds, he ended up just 4 hundredths of a second short of a second for a second consecutive victory.