From an FEI Press Release by Louise Parkes.

The US Team got off to a slow start in the first leg of the 2007 Samsung Super League in La Baule, France but with seven competitions remaining, it remains anybody’s game. The US Squad put in impressive performances on Thursday however, Todd Minikus won the Prix Ministère de l'Agriculture, a power and speed class, with Pavoratti by almost two seconds. Beezie Madden (Authentic) and Laura Kraut (Miss Independent) also jumped double clean in the class.

In the Super League, Richard Spooner and Cristallo were best of the US combinations. They followed a single error in the first-round with a nice second-round clear. FEI debutante Lisa Silverman picked up a total of 17 faults while pathfinding over the two rounds with Obelix R and Laura Kraut collected 12 with the experienced Miss Independent. The biggest surprise however was the 24 faults accumulated by WEG silver medalist Beezie Madden riding Integrity.

The final scores disguised a convincing victory for Germany. Although they finished with just a two-fault advantage over Switzerland, their last rider, Ludger Beerbaum, didn’t have to jump because their win was already assured.

The weather-gods were not altogether kind, heavy rain making Frederic Cottier's track all the more challenging for many during the early stages, but the Germans were already looking far too good by the half-way interval after Marcus Ehning (Noltes Kuchengirl), Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst (Lord Luis) and Ludger Beerbaum (Couleur Rubin) all kept a clean sheet while Heinrich-Hermann Engemann provided the discount score when lowering two with Aboyeur W.

It was wide-open for the remaining places at this point however with Switzerland carrying eight faults, Belgium and Holland with nine, the home team from France with 12, Sweden carrying 14, the USA with 17 and Great Britain carrying 20. Surprisingly it was Michael Whitaker who provided the discount score for the British in this round when picking up 13 faults with the stallion Insul Tech Mozart des Hayettes so double-errors from both Mark Armstrong (Thesaura) and William Funnel (Mondrian) had to be added to the single mistake made by David McPherson's Pilgrim 11.

A 13-fault opener from Piet Raijmakers and Van Schijndel's Curtis rattled Dutch confidence as the second round got underway and their grip was further loosened by a similar score from Vincent Voorn whose gelding Audi's Alpapillon Armanie had been foot-perfect first time out. While The Netherlands was weakening however, Sweden was improving, Helena Lundback having an excellent day when picking up only a single time fault each time out with Madick and Royne Zettermann faulting just once at his first attempt with Isaac before collecting one time fault in round two.

Germany's Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst commented after the competition that the time-allowed was a decisive factor today - "especially in the second round where it caused more faults" he pointed out. "The track was long - 550 metres - and every fence was a bit special. You had to be completely focused to make a clear round" he added.

The home team was hampered by an unusually large total of 16 faults from Laurent Goffinet and the game little stallion Flipper d'Elle as the second round got underway. And although Michel Hecart's stallion Itot du Chateau added just a time fault to his clear first-round result and Kevin Staut and Kraque Boom Bois Margot improved from an eight-fault to four-fault performance, the five collected by Julien Epaillard and Icare du Manet, who had already racked up nine, proved expensive because a clear at this stage would have left France in joint-runner-up spot.

The British collected another 18 faults to complete on a total of 38 faults and finish last but, despite wobbles in the closing stages, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany held firm. Phi