Harrie Smolders and Uricas van de Kattevennen (Photo: Anke Gardemann)

Six zero-fault rides in the first round

Young Harry Charles (GBR) showed the audience the first clear round with Romeo 88. Immediately afterwards, Denis Lynch and Vistogrand were also undefeated. Then the spectators had to wait a long time for the next flawless ride. Only for Harrie Smolders (NED), who entered the course with start number 25 with Uricas van de Kattevennen, there was no error.

For Switzerland, Jannika Sprunger with Orelie and Martin Fuchs with his Commissar Pezi stayed clear on the course of the first round. The 11 best rider-horse pairs qualified for the second round. Jur Vrieling from the Netherlands made it with a time error. Mario Stevens and David Will (both GER) started round 2 with one jumping error. Megane Moissonnier, Aurelien Leroy (both FRA) and Armando Trapote from Spain also qualified with one jumping error each.

Harrie Smolders one second ahead of victory in the 2023 Longines Grand Prix of Switzerland

At first, Martin Fuchs and Commissar Pezi thrilled the spectators with their second clear round. They took the lead with 42.40 seconds. Jannika Sprunger also remained undefeated, but was significantly slower at 51.81 seconds. Harry Charles Ritt with Romeo 88 had all the stops, but the time of 45.28 seconds was not enough for victory. In the end, the young Brit took third place. In 1988, Jan Tops was the last Dutchman to win the Grand Prix of Switzerland. Today Harrie Smolders had the chance to be the second Dutchman to enter the list of winners in St. Gallen. And the current number 5 in the world rankings used this opportunity in an impressive manner. With Uricas van de Kattevennen, he crossed the finish line in 41.43 seconds. That was the victory with a lead of about a second over Martin Fuchs.