Rolex FEI World CupTM, 's-Hertogenbosch (NED), 25-28 March 2010

Sweden's Rolf-Goran Bengtsson scorched to victory in the last qualifying leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series at 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands today when pipping Ireland's Jessica
Kuerten by the smallest of margins.  In a thrilling 16-horse jump-off
that kept spectators rooted to their seats it was Kuerten who seemed to
have set an impossibly fast target for the rest when eighth to go
against the clock.  But the coolest of cool Swedes cruised home to shave
one-tenth of a second off her time when last to go with his 11 year old
stallion Casall la Silla.

Australia's Edwina Alexander and Cevo Itot du Chateau slotted into third ahead of Ludger Beerbaum and Gotha in fourth while fifth place went to The Netherlands' Piet Raijmakers Jnr. whose father, Piet Senior,
officially retired from international competition today and was
honoured in an emotional ceremony after the World Cup class concluded. 
In front of the packed stadium British legend John Whitaker told
Raijmakers Senior "you were a very hard man to beat and you never gave
up - until now!" whlle the Dutch veteran commented that "my riding
career been a beautiful holiday for the last 35 years - now I must
actually go to work!".

JUMPABLE
The 13-fence course designed by Holland's Louis Konickx proved a little too jumpable and allowed 16 through to the second-round jump-off which
consequently turned into a relentless gallop against the clock.  But if
there is one partnership that gets high on speed it's Jessica Kuerten
and Lady Georgina Forbes' brilliant mare Castle Forbes Libertina who set
off at a break-neck pace when eighth to go against the clock, and they
shattered the target of 35.06 seconds set by Raijmakers Jnr when
breaking the beam in 32.60 seconds. Germany's Marcus Ehning and Noltes
Kuchengirl hit the very last fence while French rider Penelope Leprevost
and Mylord Carthago hit the penultimate oxer, but Edwina Alexander and
Itot du Chateau were foot-perfect to temporarily slot into runner-up
spot - the size of the jump produced by this spring-heeled little
chestnut at the final oxer drawing gasps of excitement from the crowd.

Ben Maher's chances disappeared when Robin Hood clipped the second fence while Dutchman Harrie Smolders and Exquis Powerfree clipped the first element of the double three from home, although their time was the
quickest of the day as they broke the beam in 32.35 seconds. With just
three left to go Ludger Beerbaum set off on a fabulous tour of the track
with his nine year old mare Gotha who has been increasing in confidence
all season and returned a competitive clear in 33.47 seconds to ensure a
prominent place in the final line-up, and when reigning World Champion
Jos Lansink from Belgium hit the Rolex vertical, now third on the track,
only Bengtsson could prevent Kuerten - winner at both Leipzig and
Gothenburg - from making it a hat-trick of wins in the 2009/2010 Rolex
FEI World Cup™ Jumping series. 

ALL OVER
Even Bengtsson thought it was all done and dusted.  "I watched Jessica's ride on the screen and thought it was impossible to beat a horse so
sensationally fast" he said afterwards.  "I knew it would be difficult
to make the same seven strides from fence one to fence two but I thought
I'd try - it was very long, but we made it - my horse has a long, slow
canter so he is difficult to adjust and my job was to stay focused and
to keep him jumping off that long stride, and then I got a great shot to
the last and that was it!" he added, making it all sound very
elementary.  This great result however has not earned the master
horseman a starting spot in the final as he is lying 24th on the series
table and only the top-20 are qualified.

For Kuerten today was another triumph, even if she had to settle for runner-up spot.  She has amassed a massive 90 points and heads the Western European League table with a nine-point advantage over next-best
rider, Germany's Marco Kutscher.  She knows she is now a strong
favourite to take the title in Switzerland in just over two weeks' time
after an exceptional run of form that included five more top placings at
this weekend's Dutch fixture.  She's not enjoying the pressure that
puts on her however and insisted today that, although her three great
mares are on top form, she prefers a single-competition challenge to the
three-day test of a World Cup Final.  And she is feeling particularly
protective of Castle Forbes Libertina who is not long back in work after
a seven-month injury layoff.  "I think I will take her to Geneva but I
am not finally decided" she said.

COMPETITIVE
For Bengtsson, Casall la Silla's victory is the result of a patient wait for him to mature into a truly competitive jumper.  "I spent a long
time building him up through young horses classes and I never pushed him
to do anything before he was ready - I'm profiting from that now.  For
the last three-quarters of a year he has been more and more consistent
in jump-offs and I can trust him more to go quick and stay focused -
we've had a very, very good late season" he explained.  Today he brought
that great season to the perfect conclusion.

RESULT: 1, Casall La Silla (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) Swe 0/0 32.50; 2, Castle Forbes Libertina (Jessica Kuerten) Irl 0/0 32.60; 3, Cevo Itot du Chateau (Edwina Alexander) Aus 0/0 33.32; 4, Gotha (Ludger Beerbaum)
Ger 0/0 33.47; 5, Van Schijndel's Rascin (Piet Raijmakers Jr) Ned 0/0
35.06; 6, Opium VS (Marc Houtzager) Ned 0/0 38.42; 7, Caramell KS
(Svante Johansson) Swe 0/0 40.47; 8, Exquis Powerfree (Harrie Smolders)
Ned 0/4 32.35; 9, Noltes Kuchengirl (Marcus Ehning) Ger 0/4 33.72; 10,
Mylord Carthago (Penelope Leprevost) Fra 0/4 34.30; 11, Robin Hood (Ben
Maher) GBR 0/4 34.30; 12, Audi's Alpapillon-Armanie (Vincent Voorn) Ned
0/4 37.08; 13, Valentina Van't Heike (Jos Lansink) Bel 0/4 38.33; 14,
Primeval Wings (Gert-Jan Bruggink) Ned 0/8 31.71:15, Ukinda (Hugo Simon)
Aut 0/8 34.45; 16, Peu a Peu (Daniel Etter) Sui 0/8 35.02.  Full
results at: www.scg-nl.nl

ROLEX FEI WORLD CUP™ JUMPING 2009/2010 - Western European League Standings after Round 13 at 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands:
1.    Jessica Kuerten         -    90
2.    Marco Kutscher        -    81
3.    Pius Schwizer            -    77
4.    Edwina Alexander        -    75
5.    Marcus Ehning            -    74
6.    Rodrigo Pessoa        -    71
7.    Ludger Beerbaum        -    67
8.    Kevin Staut            -    59
9.    Beat Mandli            -    57
10.    Eric van der Vleuten    -    57
11.    Philipp Weishaupt        -    57
12.    Patrice Deleveau        -    55
13.    Penelope Leprevost        -    54
14.    Michael Whitaker        -    51
15.    Daniel Etter            -    50
16.    Svante Johansson        -    49
17.    Luciana Diniz            -    48
18.    Dermott Lennon        -    43
19.    Natale Chiaudani        -    43
20.    Steve Guerdat            -    39.
Complete standings at www.feiworldcup.org

Facts and Figures:
A total of 16 horses and riders qualified for the second-round jump-off
5 of the top ten horses in today's winning line-up were stallions -
including Rolf-Goran Bengtsson's 11 year old Casall La Silla
There were 4 four mares in the top ten line-up also
Both Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa (6th) and Australia's Edwina Alexander
(4th) finished the qualifying season in the top 20 on the Western
European League leaderboard.  However they do not take the place of
Western European League riders so Italy's Natale Chiaudani and
Switzerland's Steve Guerdat take the last two qualifying places at
present.