The Global Champions Tour will be reorganised in Germany next year. No longer will tournaments organised by Volker Wullf in Hamburg and Berlin be stages, but Ludger Beerbaum's facility in Riesenbeck, where the European Championships were already held this year.
"Riesenbeck International will be the only event in Germany to make an exciting debut on the Longines Global Champions Tour in 2023," has just been announced by LGCT itself. "The event will take place from 21 to 23 July at the world-class equestrian facility developed by multiple Olympic champion Ludger Beerbaum. The venue for last year's European Championships will welcome the world's best riders and horses in top-level sport for an exciting stage in the team and individual championships next summer."
Ludger Beerbaum himself said: "We are now very happy to be part of this special series. The Riesenbeck Lawn Stadium will once again be the stage for a top-class international equestrian event." LGCT President Jan Tops added: "We are delighted to announce Riesenbeck as our German leg in the 2023 LGCT and GCL Series and look forward to a great event at this fantastic venue and working with our partner Ludger Beerbaum and his team." Further details of the new Riesenbeck International event and the full calendar for 2023 will be announced shortly.
After all, things were already grating this year between the German organiser Volker Wulff and the organisers of the Longines Global Champions Tour around Jan Tops: while new venues were added to the Tour calendar worldwide, the LGCT leg in the German capital, which was to be staged at the foot of the Funkturm in Berlin for the fifth time this summer, was cancelled. The meagre news read: "For various reasons, the organisers of the Longines Global Champions Tour see themselves forced to cancel the Berlin five-star show jumping tournament again this year. After two years of Corona restrictions and the current crisis situation due to the Ukraine war, the logistical challenges for the Longines Global Champions Tour are increasingly difficult to cope with and so the decision has been made to implement only one stop in Germany this year, in Hamburg as part of the German Jumping and Dressage Derby." In the course of the year, they wanted to find a way for there to be a continuation in Berlin in 2023 and thus two stages in Germany again and concentrated on the Ascension Day event in Hamburg, as part of the German Show Jumping and Dressage Derby, for the time being.
But now it is announced by Volker Wulff's Engarde team that the acclaimed winner of the LGCT Grand Prix on 28 May 2022 in Hamburg, Christian Ahlmann on Dominator 2000 Z, was the last Tour winner on the Elbe:
"The tournament classic in Hamburg-Klein Flottbek is best known for the German Show Jumping and Dressage Derby, presented by IDEE KAFFEE, combined with the most important classical show jumping competitions in the world, such as the Championat von Hamburg and the Grand Prix of Hamburg," the official statement begins.
"This has always been in the foreground for us and should continue to be so: The traditional Derby in combination with modern show jumping at world level," explained Derby Director Volker Wulff. Up to now, the Longines Global Champions Tour has contested the Grand Prix of Hamburg as a leg of the series. This will change from 2023: "We were very happy to have the Tour as a guest in Klein Flottbek, but Hamburg has its own profile, which has been established for over 100 years. This profile must not be changed or diluted by a series guest. That's why we agreed with the Tour not to extend the contract that is now expiring," Wulff explains further. "And so, after 15 years, it is now time to go our separate ways. So we want to keep the Derby and the top equestrian sport in Hamburg as a unit. That is why this event is so loved by an audience of millions - a sporting and social highlight in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, on one of the most beautiful courses in the world."
In sporting terms, this should not detract from Hamburg as a showground: "The competitions will be upgraded overall: the German Show Jumping Derby, the Hamburg Championships and the Hamburg Grand Prix will become more lucrative for the riders - the Hamburg Grand Prix will once again stand and shine on its own and it deserves that!"
This development is a pity in any case. Because in Berlin, which was once home to international equestrian flair, the hippological void will once again break out, as it has done for so many years. And whether or not the Derby in Hamburg will lack international equestrian glamour remains to be seen. Volker Wulff, however, is quite sure about this in an interview with spring-reiter.de: "There will be a starting field, also due to the increase in premiums, where no big names are missing, but which corresponds to international 5* level." As there is no Global Tour leg unfolding its attraction in parallel on the Derby weekend, he also sees no reason why top German riders such as Daniel Deusser or Christian Ahlmann should not come. "And Steve Guerdat, for example, doesn't ride a Global Tour anyway."
