Venue Form: The World Championship Horses With the Deepest Aachen Records
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Most tested at the height
Nicola Philippaerts and Katanga V/H Dingeshof
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15
1.60m Aachen rounds jumped, most of any horse in the field
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73%
Clear round rate across those 15 starts
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0
Rounds worse than four faults, ever, at Aachen
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Jumping got underway at the FEI World Championships in Aachen on Wednesday. Team medals go out Friday. The individual final crowns a champion on Sunday. Before either happens, the Soers arena has already had its say on plenty of these combinations, and the ones who keep coming back with a ribbon are worth a look.
Six pairs in this Aachen data set have finished top three at 1.55m or 1.60m more than once. Three of them have done it three times or more, spread across different years, different classes, sometimes a different decade of the horse's career. Add up every 1.60m round each horse in this year's field has jumped at Aachen, not just the ones that ended on a podium, and the picture gets sharper still.
The most seasoned at 1.60 in Aachen
Rounds jumped at 1.60m in Aachen, most to fewest, among the horses due to jump there again this week.
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Katanga V/H Dingeshof
73% clear, 0% worse than 4 faults
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15 | |
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Baloutinue
54% clear, 0% worse than 4 faults
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13 | |
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United Touch S
78% clear, the best conversion rate of the group
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9 | |
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Vertigo du Desert
67% clear
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9 | |
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James Kann Cruz
44% clear, highest Elo of the group at 789
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9 | |
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Dorette OLD
63% clear with Jana Warger's (This week Dorette OLD will be competing with Marlon Modolo Zanotelli)
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8 | |
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Conner Jei
50% clear, 2 of 8 rounds worse than 8 faults
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8 |
Shane Sweetnam's James Kann Cruz is the outlier in that top group. Nine rounds jumped, the highest average Elo of any horse with real Aachen mileage at 767, and four of those nine came home clear.
Smallest sample, biggest number: Sophie Hinners's Iron Dames Singclair has jumped five rounds at 1.60m in Aachen and finished clear in every one. Five for five does not carry the weight of Katanga's fifteen, but it is a perfect record all the same.
Katanga does not miss
Nicola Philippaerts and Katanga V/H Dingeshof have the busiest podium record in the set. In 2022 they took Nations Cup silver for Belgium, then came back three days later for individual Rolex Grand Prix bronze. A year on they were back on the Nations Cup podium again, bronze this time. Two team medals and an individual Grand Prix podium, all inside two summers. Zoom out to every 1.60m round she has ever jumped on this ground, not just the podium ones, and the record holds up: fifteen starts, eleven clear, and not one round worse than four faults.
| Rolex GP podiums
United Touch S
Richard Vogel (GER)
Bronze in the 2024 Rolex Grand Prix, then the win in 2026. Two podiums in Aachen's biggest class and an Elo rating of 783. Across every 1.60m round he has jumped here, nine in total, seven have gone clear.
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Four years, two different jobs
Baloutinue
Laura Kraut (USA)
Nations Cup gold with the USA in 2021, Rolex Grand Prix silver in 2025. A team podium and an individual one, four years apart, same horse. Thirteen rounds jumped at 1.60m in Aachen altogether, second most in the field, seven of them clear.
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| New rider, familiar ground
Dorette OLD
Marlon Modolo Zanotelli (BRA)
Two Aachen podiums already on the record, RWE Prize gold in 2023 and Turkish Airlines Prize bronze in 2024, both earned with Jana Wargers in the saddle. Eight rounds jumped at 1.60m here, five clear. Marlon Modolo Zanotelli takes over the ride into a venue this horse already knows well.
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Same class, two years running
Conner Jei
Martin Fuchs (SUI)
Turkish Airlines Prize silver in 2022, bronze in 2023. While the wider record has been streakier, with four clears from eight 1.60m rounds in Aachen and two of the other four finishing with fewer than eight faults, they will still be a strong pair to watch.
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The oldest hand in the field
Luciana Diniz and Vertigo du Desert have podiumed at Aachen across three different years. Bronze in the RWE Prize in 2019, when the horse was ten. Silver in the Turkish Airlines Prize in 2021, at twelve. Silver again in a Rolex Grand Prix qualifier this May, at seventeen. Nine rounds jumped at 1.60m in Aachen across their career, six of them clear. Vertigo du Desert has proved to thrive in Aachen across all stages of his career.
Rounds jumped, clear rates and fault bands cover every 1.60m round each horse has jumped at Aachen.
None of that decides Sunday. It just means the horses who have done this before are not guessing what the Soers arena is going to ask of them.