Munich continues to be a happy hunting ground for New Zealand’s Bruce Goodin who notched his fourth win in the 1.60m Grand Prix at the CSI3* Munchen-Riem in Germany overnight.
Bruce and his World Equestrian Games horse Backatorps Danny V headed home a starry field of 48 other combinations including current World Champ Simone Blum (GER) aboard DSP Alice and Michael Jung (GER) on fischerChelsea among others.
Fifteen came back for the jump-off where just Bruce and runner-up Ales Opatrny (CZE)aboard Forewer kept their slates clean.
“This (Grand Prix) has been good to me,” said Bruce. His previous three wins (2014, 2015, 2016) have come from his other World Champs horse Centina 10. “It was very nice to win on Danny. I had a really good feeling all week about it. He had jumped great at his last show for second and trained really well this past week.”
But he deviated from his usual Munich Grand Prix game plan. “Normally when I come to this show, my plan has always been to jump a small class on the Thursday morning and then a big one later in the day which is something you are allowed to do here. It is a big open grass field, but quite spooky and it always felt good to get the horses in there with a nice small easy class.”
However, his gut instinct this time was to do something different. “Every time I thought about putting him in that smaller class it just didn’t feel right, so I just put him in the big class (on Thursday afternoon). We had a really cheap back rail at the first, but he jumped great.”
Then came another dilemma as to whether to jump him in another class before the Grand Prix – but again, it just didn’t feel right. “He has worked really well this week and I feel things are just starting to click. We are making progress all the time.”
Danny warmed up great today and right from the first fence, Bruce says he felt they were on song. “He jumped well in the first round and really great in the second – he was trying so hard.”
The Kiwi combination were double clear in 48.31 seconds with Ales coming home in 50.51 seconds. Michael Jung – a world champion eventer who seems to be doing more and more showjumping – was the fastest round of the jump-off with his time of 46.12 seconds, but they had a rail and had to settle for fifth.
“It is very satisfying to win this again,” says Bruce, “but it is also a strange challenge. You have to stay focused and in the moment, and not get ahead of yourself just because you have won it before.”
He says his partnership with Danny is continuing to grow, with the horse understanding things so much better and he as a rider understanding him better too. “Last year it was sort of trying to do a lot in a short amount of time and when you are in that process it is hard to work on things you need to, so you are dealing with what you have rather than being able to get down to the nitty gritty and work on things. Now things are changing.”
The horse details:
Backatorps Danny V – owned by Backatorp Ryder AB & Friends
By Diana Dobson – HP Media Liaison