Kurten gives a master performance

EQUESTRIAN: Jessica Kürten got her new year off to a perfect start with victory in the Dubai Masters at the Al Maktoum Memorial Challenge yesterday. The 35-year-old Co Antrim-born rider had to go through five rounds of jumping to clinch the class, but the €30,670 winner's purse more than compensated for the pain in her injured shoulder. The other six riders all earned a mere €3,300 apiece in appearance money, in a winner-take-all event.

Kürten had a mixed finish to her 2005 season, moving up to fifth in the Gandini world rankings on December 31st following her second place finish in the Olympia Grand Prix the week before Christmas.

But there was a downside, too, as the Team Aegon rider tore ligaments in her right shoulder in a fall off a young horse at home in Germany after returning from the London fixture.

"I landed right on the point of my shoulder and thought it was broken," Kürten told The Irish Times from the centre of celebrations in Dubai last night.

"I was told not to ride for six weeks. I didn't ride for 14 days, but I walked in the woods for two hours a day and then started swimming after 10 days to keep fit. I'm really glad I did, because I'm tired now after jumping five rounds.

"The shoulder isn't healed, but I've got a great Belgian doctor and he injected it for me. I was determined not to miss this show, so I'm just being unbelievably careful to make sure I don't get another fall."

Kürten was pitched against six of the world's top 20 riders for yesterday's Masters, but the field was reduced to just three after the first round.

Nick Skelton, the big winner on Wednesday, missed the cut, along with Christian Ahlmann, Bernardo Alves and Francois Mathy.

The remaining trio were clear over three more rounds before the clock was used as the final adjudicator. Kürten was called in first to set the pace with the mare Castle Forbes Libertina, one of Lady Georgina Forbes' string of horses.

"I just let her run and she did everything she had to. I took a stride out going into the combination and that just put so much pressure on the other two."

Both succumbed to that pressure, with Dutchman Gerco Schroder returning on eight faults after his final tour of the track on Eurocommerce Acapulco, and last man in Marcus Ehning picking up four to take second place for Germany with Noble Savage.

Kürten now has her sights set on today's €632,000 Grand Prix, which brings the four-day, €1 million showcase to a close.

But she is not impressed with her draw for the feature class. "I'm first to go," she bemoaned, "and Nick Skelton is second in."