Sandra Auffarth won the Agria Falsterbo Grand Prix in glorious sunshine

On Sunday, the sun returned to Falsterbo and when the clock struck two, the stands were packed to the brim with spectators who wanted to see the absolute world elite square off in the prestigious Agria Falsterbo Grand Prix. Sandra Auffarth won with Quirici H.

The track was composed by an experienced track builder quartet consisting of Spaniards  Santiago Varela  and  Elena Boix , together with Swedes  Fredrik Malm  and  Frida Andersson . The class offered 42 starters where the best 11 crews advanced to the Winning Round.

The course in round 1 was ridden over 13 obstacles with 16 jumps and a maximum time of 82 seconds which for the day would prove to be difficult to pass. After the first round, only  Pius Schwizer  (Switzerland),  Kristaps Neretnieks  (Latvia),  Sandra Auffarth  (Germany) and  Cian O'Connor  (Ireland) had managed to deliver a clear round; which meant that it was them and seven other crews who settled for the victory in the Winning Round. Including  Abdel Saïd  (Belgium) who incurred a time fault.

In an exciting Winning Round, it was both time and obstacle errors that were decisive and one by one the big favorites fell away. The class was finally won by the German Sandra Auffart together with  Quirici H  who had not even had a thought about winning. But the horse exceeded her expectations and the team was finally victorious in this year's Agria Falsterbo Grand Prix.

- I thought it would be a round to get routine at this height, and then he jumped super and was super concentrated!

After the victory, the rider said that before her ride she had no idea that the time was so difficult to pass, nor how fast the other riders had ridden:

- It was quite a tough track, quite technical. I had no idea, I must honestly say, of how fast the other riders had been riding.

The winner is a former event rider, with several championship medals in her bag, and while several crews had problems with the time, Sandra managed on the right side of the clock. And perhaps it was precisely the background of the field competition that meant that time did not become a concern, neither in the first round nor in the Winning round, in which she beat the lightning-fast Irishman Cian O'Connor by over a second.

Results Agria Falsterbo Grand Prix:

1. Sandra Auffarth, GER – Quirici H 0-0/52.56
2. Cian O'Connor, IRL – Fancy de Kergane 0-0/53.62
3. Abdel Saïd, BEL – Figueras de Laume 1-1/62.36