Until Richard Vogel has finished the course, no one else can be sure that they have secured the victory. This happened to Denis Lynch today in the Prize of Handwerk.

As the sixth pair to go, the Irish show-jumper Denis Lynch and his 12-year-old Cornet Obolensky son, Cornet’s Iberio, took the lead in the Prize of Handwerk with a clear round in 62.33 seconds and headed the field almost till the finish. But then Richard Vogel and the Belgian-bred Corydon son, Phenyo van het Kayserbos, competed as the fourth last pair and crossed the finish line in a time of 61.43 seconds to clinch the victory. Third place went to a further speedy, Irish rider, Shane Sweetnam with Irandole du Flot (62.82).

It is only the third competition together for Richard Vogel and his just nine-year-old Phenyo van het Kaiserbos. Nevertheless, Aachen fitted perfectly into the plan for them. “We haven’t been a pair for very long. But I am totally impressed with him, because he has made huge progress in such a short space of time and I have great hopes for him. There are thank goodness jumping competitions like these in Aachen (the Prize of Handwerk), that aren’t too high, i.e. at 1.45 metre level, which place the focus more on the speed rather than the height. That is great for Phenyo in his current training status. It allows him to get used to the atmosphere of such shows and in such arenas. He has never jumped here before, so we are overjoyed that he performed so well today and that we were able to concentrate on the time and not just on the fact that we had to try and stay clear.”

He hadn’t gone all out to win though. He simply wanted to make sure his sports partner had the best possible experience in his first round in Aachen: “Phenyo is naturally very fast. We just tried not to take the turns too wide. A slightly higher basic tempo is better for him, because he perhaps doesn’t naturally have the biggest scope. So, I’d say it suited him down to the ground and he had more fun than if we had gone at a slower pace. Because it might have struggled slightly at the oxers otherwise.” Not that this means he doesn’t think Phenyo won’t be suitable for even greater tasks in the future. “In general, we have high hopes for him, and think he will perhaps be able to jump here in higher classes next year or the year after.”

It was already Richard Vogel’s third top placing in three classes at the CHIO Aachen 2024. Yesterday he came second with two other horses, and today he claimed the victory with Phenyo. “We’d like the week to carry on just like this,” grinned Vogel, adding straight away: “We won’t manage that, but up till now things are going very well. All of the horses are in top form, are jumping superbly and I will try to ride as well as possible and not let my horses down. Then, I think we may able to win one or two rosettes here.”