Marco Kutscher Creates Longines Masters History
21st February 2016 Hong Kong
21st February 2016 Hong Kong
He is is now more than $HK3 MILLION richer after winning today’s Longines Grand Prix. In addition to his share of first prize money, Kutscher will take home a bonus cheque for 250,000 EUROS for winning a second non-consecutive Longines Grand Prix. He also triumphed in this prestigious class in the American leg of the series last October.
Kutscher, currently ranked number 18 in the world, was overjoyed with the win;
“I am now a Hong Kong millionaire,” he joked.
Kutscher has been battling illness all week and amazingly managed to get himself together for today’s main event. Adding to that there was serious pressure on him going into the final round against the best of the best as he was the last rider to enter the arena and had an ominous opponent, Kevin Staut, holding the lead with a time of 46.61 sec.
“I felt very anxious going out as the last rider but I have been in this position before so that experience helped me a little bit.”
Aboard his talented and magnificent bay stallion Van Gogh, Kutscher rode the round of his life to complete the challenging course in 45.16 sec and win his first ever bonus.
“I have never won a bonus and it’s not like everyday I win a Grand Prix so this is a tremendous thrill.”
Kutscher had his challenges with Van Gogh leading into today’s Longines Grand Prix and worked hard to get the horse into the right mental zone for today's event.
“On the first day he did not feel right so I jumped him again yesterday and that seemed to help a lot.”
Winning today was an extraordinary achievement by Kutscher who is the first rider to meet the challenge of winning two out of three Grand Prix events in this intercontinental series that takes place in Los Angeles, Paris and Hong Kong.
Founder of this innovative series, EEM CEO Christophe Ameeuw congratulated Kutscher.
“We are ending the fourth edition of the Longines Masters of Hong Kong on a high and it is incredible to see Marco win this Grand Slam Indoor Super Bonus and great for the public here to be able to witness history and an incredible standard of sport,” Ameeuw said.
Longines Grand Prix Runner-up Kevin Staut was full of praise for Kutscher and not surprised he stole victory in the last round.
“The way Marco performed in the opening round I knew it was going to be very hard to beat him,” Staut said.
Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano finished third (46.74 sec), current world number 2 Simon Delestre from France was fourth placed (46.76 sec) and Irish young gun Bertram Allen (47.11 sec) was fifth.
We look forward to welcoming you to the next season of the Longines Masters Series, the Grand Slam Indoor of Show Jumping, which kicks off in Los Angeles from September 29-October 2, continuing in Paris from December 1-4, and again reaching its Asian leg in Hong Kong from February 10-12, 2017.
