Ahlmann has all-star weekend at Longines Global Champions Tour in Berlin

24 of the best horse-and-rider combinations on the planet were lined up to start the 1.60m Grand Prix on Frank Rothenberger’s course, but the experience was cut short for three top riders: Lorenzo de Luca of Italy and Sergio Alvarez Moya of Spain retired from the Class, while Daniel Deusser was eliminated. 

Among the rest of the high-level group, which included riders like the United States’ Kent Farrington, Canada’s Eric Lamaze and Great Britain’s Ben Maher, only three made it through to the tie-breaking jump-off round: Ahlmann, on Codex One, his compatriot Simone Blum on DSP Alice and Leopold van Asten on VDL Groep Beauty. And the two Germans were the only ones to ride clear again, with Ahlmann’s time of 40.56 seconds trumping Blum’s 41.01. Van Asten ended up with eight penalty points but still won €45,000 in third. Blum, the 28-year-old biology and chemistry student, earned €60,000 for her second place and Ahlmann €99,000.

But the victory, as well as his impressive second win in the 1.50m CSI5* Class Sunday with a different mount, Colorit, also provided Ahlmann with valuable points in the Global Champions Tour race, with four competitions left — including the next leg at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London from August 4-6.

“I’m really, really happy,” Ahlmann said afterwards. “I’m climbing up the rankings. I’m really happy with the show; as a German rider it’s great to have a show here, with such great support from the crowd. It was a lot of fun to ride!” Indeed, Ahlmann is now in third place in the 2017 Tour rankings with 220 points, just behind Italy’s Alberto Zorzi with 221 and leader Harrie Smolders of the Netherlands (252).

Blum was also feeling grateful about how things went at the Sommergarten: “This year was really amazing,” she said. “I won the German Championship, which is already a big success for me. I was able to come here, and that I could get second place is unbelievable.”

In the corresponding team-based Global Champions League competition in Berlin, the Valkenswaard United squad of Zorzi and Bertram Allen captured first place, with Lamaze and Jos Verlooy’s Hamburg Diamonds in second.