Martin Fuchs and Commissar Pezi solve a difficult case. The pair scored points for the first time in the main event at the CHI Basel with 4th place.
The Zurich rider and his twelve-year-old gelding reached the jump-off with eight pairs. Julien Epaillard from France came out on top with Donatello in the competition, which was worth 330,000 Swiss francs.
Fuchs had already won the most important competition at the tournament in Basel in 2018 and 2019 in the saddle on Clooney. Now he was aiming for a third victory with an attacking ride, which ultimately cost him a place on the podium. Because other competitors rode to safety. Dutch rider Maikel van der Vleuten and Briton Tim Gredley took second and third place.
Fuchs was clearly the fastest. But he can also live well with 4th place. This takes some pressure off him for the coming weeks. He now has a good chance of qualifying for the World Cup Final in Basel in April.
Of the eleven Swiss pairs, only Fuchs and Pezi got through the normal course without any faults. Things did not go according to plan for Olympic silver medallist Steve Guerdat, who no longer has to worry about his ticket to the World Cup Final. The gelding Venard, who had carried him to the "Coupe de Genève" a month ago and to many other successes, broke his hindquarters on the second jump and a little later there was another pole in the sand. Guerdat decided to take it easy on his four-legged friend and stopped.
Géraldine Straumann and Edouard Schmitz can still hope to take part in the World Cup Final. Riding Long John Silver, the rider from Basel suffered a fault on the second last obstacle at her first World Cup appearance in Basel and did not score any points this time. The Genevan did not get up to speed with Gamin.