The Brazilian Yuri Mansur won the Turkish Airlines-Prize of Europe on Wednesday evening under floodlight on a horse that he hopes will take him to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

However, the jump-off was opened by a Swiss rider: Edouard Schmitz with Gamin van’t Naastveldhof. The 23-year-old and his eleven-year-old Belgian Chacco Chacco son put in a round that made it clear they would be hard to beat. Every turn forward, all obstacles in a smooth manner, 42.43 seconds – it can’t really go much faster than that, you thought.

But then Yuri Mansur and the only ten-year-old Brazilian mare Miss Blue-Saint Blue Farm came along and beat the Swiss rider’s time by another 0.16 seconds. However, he was to remain the only one. Neither Alain Jufer (SUI) on Dante MM nor the three German pairs in the jump-off, Philipp Weishaupt with Coby, Richard Vogel on United Touch S and Gerrit Nieberg with Blues d’Aveline, managed another clear round, let alone one that would have been faster than that of Mansur. As the last competitor, Martin Fuchs still had a chance to win on the Holsteiner gelding Conner Jei. They had recently won the Rolex Grand Prix of Windsor, among others. In fact, the Connor son also jumped clear and Fuchs did what he could to break the time, but it was not enough. After 42.78 seconds the time stopped for him. Third place behind Mansur and Schmitz.

Yuri Mansur later revealed that he and Edouard Schmitz had been in the placings together all winter. “But he was always better than me then.” Today it was the other way round. And his mare had the biggest share in that. “She is a phenomenon! Actually, she is only nine years old, she will only be ten in September. As a young horse, she hardly did anything. Less than a year ago, I was still riding her in 1.30-metre jumping competitions.” And now she jumps from success to success. Among others, the pair was part of the second-placed Nations’ Cup team in St. Gallen (SUI). Does it mean anything to him that he won here in Aachen with a horse bred in Brazil? Yes, but in a way it was also funny, because at the beginning of his career he had brought many horses from Europe to Brazil, “and now towards the end of my career they are coming back”. End of the 44-year-old’s career? “I have a plan. I still want to ride the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and I hope she will be my horse for that. But after that I want to concentrate on my children’s careers.”

Edouard Schmitz has been training with the Fuchs family, i.e. Martin Fuchs and his father Thomas, for six years. “It is not empty words when I say that I owe everything to these two,” said the Swiss. These words have a beautiful ring to them for Martin Fuchs. So he could easily get over the fact that he was “only” third today. “Sometimes one is better, sometimes the other. We push each other and spur each other on. I think that’s very good,” said Fuchs. The next chance for a rematch is sure to come!