One Month to Aachen: Eyes Turn to Riesenbeck

Riesenbeck International opens its grass ring on Thursday for the Longines Global Champions Tour, running July 16 to 19. The final day of the show sits exactly one month before jumping starts at the FEI World Championships in Aachen on August 19.

Ninety nine horse and rider combinations arrive at Riesenbeck carrying results from CSI5* and major championship level 1.60m sport, and 24 of them, close to a quarter of the field, are German. No other nation comes close.

A Grass Ring Built For This

Germany has already named its jumping team for Aachen. National coach Otto Becker picked Richard Vogel & United Touch S, Daniel Deusser & Otello de Guldenboom, Sophie Hinners & Iron Dames Singclair, and Marcus Ehning & Coolio 42, with Christian Kukuk & Checker 47, the reigning Olympic champions, named first reserve.

Three of those five combinations show up in the Riesenbeck field this week: Deusser on Otello de Guldenboom, Ehning on Coolio 42, and reserve Kukuk on Checker 47. Vogel's United Touch S and Hinners's Iron Dames Singclair are absent from the field.

The Elo Picture

Ermitage Kalone and Gilles Thomas sit on top of the field on current Elo, with Nina Mallevaey's Dynastie de Beaufour close behind. Deusser's Otello de Guldenboom is the highest rated of the confirmed German team horses in the field, and Checker 47 still leads the group with five Grand Prix and World Cup wins, more than any other combination here.

Clear rate and wins count 5* Grand Prix and World Cup starts only, career to date. Highlighted rows are the confirmed German team combinations found in the Riesenbeck field.

Who Is Arriving In Form

Career numbers tell you who has done it. The last 12 months tell you who is doing it now. Nina Mallevaey's Dynastie de Beaufour leads the field on recent Grand Prix and World Cup form, a 75 percent clear rate across 12 rounds since last summer, the best CAS return of anyone with a reasonable sample size in this field.

Deusser's Otello de Guldenboom is rising too, from a 24 percent career clear rate in Grand Prix and World Cup company to 38 percent over the last 12 months, across 16 rounds, more rounds at this level in the last year than any other combination on the list. Their recent form backs up what the German selection sees in this pair.

CAS (Clears Above Standard) adjusts clear rate for how hard the courses actually were. Positive means more clears than the standard for those tracks, negative means fewer.

Not Every Team Is Locked In Yet

Germany, the United States, Ireland and Sweden have all confirmed their teams for the World Championships in Aachen. France, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others, are still working off longer lists, with no riders yet officially named to a team. The FEI's deadline for definite team entries is July 27, just eight days after Riesenbeck wraps up.

Ireland's situation mirrors Germany's almost exactly. Three of its five confirmed combinations show up in the Riesenbeck field this week: Bertram Allen on Qonquest de Rigo, Cian O'Connor on Chatolinue PS, and reserve Denis Lynch on Vistogrand. The other two, Darragh Kenny's Eddy Blue and Shane Sweetnam's James Kann Cruz, will not compete here this week.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Great Britain are among the nations still working through it, and each has a highly rated combination walking Riesenbeck's ring this week without a team seat yet. Gilles Thomas's Ermitage Kalone carries the highest Elo in the entire field, 778. Willem Greve's Grandorado TN N.O.P. is one of the form horses of the last 12 months, a 45 percent clear rate and a CAS of +2.9 across 11 five-star Grand Prix and World Cup rounds. Scott Brash, a former world number one, brings Hello Folie into a Great Britain squad that has so far only released nominated entries. Nina Mallevaey and Dynastie de Beaufour are in the same boat for France, and lead this data on recent form, a 75 percent clear rate over the last 12 months. None of the four has long to wait for an answer.