Marten Luiten dances to victory in freestyle at Stallion Station van Uytert Prize

With a stunning score of 76.360%, Marten Luiten won the Freestyle in the Small Tour this morning. With his Johnson TN son Johnny, he was narrowly ahead of Dinja van Liere.

The Hengstenstation van Uytert Prize was held this morning in the main arena of The Dutch Masters. To quiet piano sounds underlining Johnny's nimbleness, Marten Luiten's performance was to be enjoyed. "It was really super fun," Marten responded enthusiastically afterwards. "This was the international debut for Johnny and the first time I got to compete here internationally. It is really great. Everything is so well organised and it is a very nice arena. There were already quite a lot of people in the stands this morning. Really kicking to ride in here!"

"I wasn't completely clear yet, but overall very satisfied. I had ridden the freestyle once before. Johnny doesn't have much experience yet but then he just walks into this arena and does so well. That a few mistakes come in is not so bad then." As Talent of the Year, Marten had a busy schedule during The Dutch Masters. On Thursday, for instance, he gave a clinic himself and on Friday he did so together with Anky van Grunsven. "For the clinics I brought Fyona, for her it is also super nice to gain experience this way at events like this. In the clinic we explained how we work towards the exercises that are in the tests and how we train." It was just announced that the 22-year-old rider is part of the Talent Team for the fifth time.

Vaderland (by Vitalis) and Dinja van Liere finished in second place with a score of 76.280% followed by Diederik van Silfhout and his new trump card Las Vegas (by Ferdeaux) with a score of 74.135%.