Richard Vogel & Cepano Baloubet Back to their Winning Ways at Wellington International

By Jumper News on 2024-01-27

Wellington, Florida, USA – January 25, 2024 – The 2024 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) once again saw Germany’s Richard Vogel (GER) leading a lap of honor in the International Ring as he won Friday’s $32,000 Dodd Technologies CSI 4* 1.50m on Cepano Baloubet during the third week of competition. The win signaled the start of another successful weekend for Vogel, who was already the victor in the $140,000 Keyflow Feeds USA Grand Prix CSI 3* at the culmination of WEF 2.

Just shy of sixty horse-and-rider combinations came to contest Peter Grant’s (CAN) speed track, but Vogel is a hard man to beat on any day and boasts an impressive string of horses. Cepano Baloubet was also the mount that carried Vogel to win last year’s $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix CSI 5* .

“He’s a horse we’ve had some very good success on and I’m excited to have him back in the show ring,” Vogel commented of the Coleridge Equestrian, LLC’s 10-year-old Royal Dutch Sport Horse – Dutch Warmblood gelding (Chaman x Stakkato’s Highlight). “I didn’t manage to qualify for the grand prix yesterday so I had to jump him in this class, but he will do tomorrow night’s grand prix and I hope he jumps the same tomorrow as he did today!”

With horses like Cepano, United Touch S and WEF 2’s winning mount, Cydello, the challenge for Vogel is determining who will be most successful in each class, but it’s a decision he says he gets help with from the horses themselves.

“While each of my horses is very nice, they also all have their strengths and weaknesses,” he explained. “This horse is one that needs to have some small classes before he can comfortably do a big grand prix, whereas United Touch S will go straight into a big class and be fine with it. Cydello is a horse that is just upcoming and not super experienced, so the main goal with him is to give him experience. They are all exceptional but also very different, so they almost pick the classes themselves based on their strengths.”

Clocking in just shy of Vogel’s time of 65.15 seconds with a time of 65.32, Brazil’s Eduardo Menezes (BRA) piloted his own 12-year-old Selle Français gelding Calypso des Matis (Paddock du Plessis*hn x Tresor de Cheux) into the second-place position.

Rounding out the international podium, Mario Deslauriers (CAN) and Aram Ampagoumian LLC’s 10-year-old Oldenburg gelding Costa Quick PS (Conthargos x Quick Star) were quick enough and took third with a time of 69.23 seconds.

Final Results – $32,000 Dodd Technologies CSI 4*

1) Richard Vogel (GER) & Cepano Baloubet – 0 – 65.15

2) Eduardo Menezes (BRA) & Calypso des Matis– 0 – 65.32

3) Mario Deslauriers (CAN) & Costa Quick PS – 0 – 69.23

full results

Source: Press Release from Wellington International