Sidney Dufresne and Looping de Buissy stops Michael Jung's run of wins at the Stuttgart Masters
Photo courtesy Stuttgart German Masters
The 8,000 spectators in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle initially stood for a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Almost two minutes later and they were standing again - but this time in excitement as Frenchman Sidney Dufresne had just flown around the Indoor Derby course faultlessly on his 16-year old gelding Looping de Buissy in 79.10 seconds to narrowly win the Prize of the Firma WALTER solar.
That the 29-year old, who himself lives near to Paris, secured the victory ahead of the crowd favourite and local hero Michael Jung almost moved the large crowd to tears. “Gold-Michi”, who has already won the Indoor Derby on seven occasions, crossed the finishing line on his 10-year old mare fischerRocana FST in 79.13 seconds to hold off eventing legend Sir Mark Todd (New Zealand) and NZB Landvision (83.45).
Back in 14th and just about in the prize money was the 14-year old Calvin Böckmann (Germany). The European Championship bronze medal winner in the pony class was in the saddle of another 14-year old – the mare Camissa Nera – and stopped the clock in 84.31 seconds – eight penalties however left him down the field with an overall time of 92.31
