A spectacular weekend at Indoor Brabant just ended in an ultimate climax during the Rolex Grand Prix. In a jump-off between 7 riders it was Leopold van Asten who won ahead of Wout-Jan van der Schans and Marc Houtzager to make a full Dutch stage.
The 50e edition of Indoor Brabant could not have had a better winner. As if it was a fairy tale the freshly crowned "Sportsman of the year" Wim van de Leegte saw his rider and horse speed to victory in the Grand Prix. In front of more then 60.000 spectators Van Asten and his VDL Groep Zindane N.O.P. (v. Haertbreaker) spared every millimetre on course to stop the clock on 39.29 seconds.
"This is a dreamwin or me! What a weekend.." an emotional Van Asten said. "It is amazing that Wim got awarded yesterday. And not today we can produce this amazing win. I want to thank everyone that helped me achieve this"
Van Der Schans who was first to go in the jump-off with the Capetown (v. Oklund) came in second. The Duthc rider was already over the moon when he was the first to jump clear in on the very tough course today. During the jump-off his KWPN bred gelding gave it all again to finish in 40.51 seconds.
"They did not invite me to the Jumping Legends last thurdsay" joked the 55-year old Van the Schans. "Oklund was super today. The crowd exploded when I was the first with a clear round. And during the jump-off I just wanted to put a good clear round on the clock. I did not take all the risk"
Houtzager and the only 10-year old Sterrehof's Calimero put in a very smooth fast round in 40.11 seconds. Towards the last jump Houtzager was careful to over speed and have a pole down. But the rider said it is all because he did not want to overdo it with his horse.
"Calimero is still young so I did not want to overask him" Houtzager said. "He jumped fantastic in the first round. During the jump-off he was a bit more nervous, so I decided to make it a smooth round."
