Special victory for Maikel van der Vleuten in VDL Groep Prize

A stunning Dutch victory in tonight's main class. Before the start of the competition, the sudden passing away of Wim van der Leegte, the great man behind VDL Groep and highly valued sponsor of The Dutch Masters, was remembered. None other than former VDL Groep Prize sponsor rider Maikel van der Vleuten managed to win this competition with his bronze Olympic medallist Beauville Z N.O.P.

It was an exciting test tonight, with twelve jump-off candidates in the end, the competition was on the cutting edge. "Since mid-December last year, Beauville has not run an international show. Before this show I started him twice nationally. The difference was perhaps quite a bit with the fat test today. Maybe the first round didn't feel as easy as I wanted, so that's why I was actually glad that I could ride in the jump-off one more time, to get the rhythm going. The jump-off just went really well," said a satisfied Maikel van der Vleuten. He could not have wished for a better comeback.

An emotional moment in the prize-giving ceremony of the VDL Groep Prize, Maikel van der Vleuten spoke highly of Wim van der Leegte. "It was a special feeling after all. I am lucky to have won the VDL Groep Prijs several times already. Then you expect Wim to stand there, that is a bit different. We worked together with Wim for ten years, and even after that we still had a very good contact and owned horses together. Yes that is a bit weird, so I wanted to say again that Wim has meant a lot to us and to equestrian sport." A wonderful gesture from the top Dutch rider.

In second place was reigning European champion Steve Guerdat with Belamix de Belheme, followed by Marc Houtzager and 16-year-old Sterrenhof's Dante.