Florida vacation sees back-to-back wins for Richard Vogel’s German owner
Germany’s Patrick Mielnik and his family had a fun twist to their Florida vacation when they stopped by Wellington International to see Richard Vogel take back-to-back wins on Patrick’s horses. “That’s a good vacation,” said Patrick after Richard won the $6000 1.40m Open Jumper aboard I’m Black Beautiful, before returning to the winner’s slot in the $35,000 WEF Challenge Cup Premiere Round with Levi Noesar, also owned by Patrick.
Last year it was Cydello – the now 11-year old chestnut Hanoverian gelding – who was making headlines with Richard at WEF. But Richard’s partnership with 9-year old Levi Noesar, which got underway after last year’s WEF, has seen multiple wins including a victory in the Youngsters Cup final at CHIO Aachen last summer before going on and to win a five-star Grand Prix.
“He’s quite a cool horse,” said Richard, currently ranked sixth in the world rankings. “I have had him a bit less actually than a year. He was obviously only eight last year and did amazing things. From the beginning I had a good feeling about him and high hopes for him.”
Richard’s jump off round in 29.506 was almost a full three seconds faster than runner up USA’s Alison Robitaille riding Oakingham Lira in 32.336 seconds. Brazil’s Celso Ariani jumped clear in 32.889 to claim third place.
Putting him into the International arena for the Preliminary week of WEF was prompted by Patrick and his family being close by while vacationing in Miami. “The owner is here, so we brought him out for the WEF [Challenge], but that was his only class for this week,” said Richard.
Levi Noesar is likely to reappear in Week 2 of WEF. “Because he has a lot of abilities and he actually jumps it easy, so you’re always a bit like, oh, I think we can do a bigger class already. But we try to not overdo it,” Richard said of the Zirocco Blue son. “So he keeps the motivation. But I think at the end of the circuit, he can also step up into bigger classes.”
Patrick, who owns 15 horses and used to be a competitive amateur show jumper himself, bought the horse as a six-year old, over the phone. “A good friend called me on the telephone and said I have a super horse and you must buy it,” Patrick said. “I said okay I do that and I buy it on the phone – I’d never seen the horse before.”
Witnessing the win in the opening round of the WEF Challenge as Richard and Levi entered the jump off against seven of the original 31-strong field, Patrick was not surprised at the podium victory.
“We have a good partnership together and I trust Richard,” said Patrick. “I think it was a good day.”
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