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Mendoza Loor wins both classes at Mexico dressage World Cup
· 2 min read
Ecuador's Julio Mendoza Loor and Jewel's Goldstrike won both the Grand Prix (73.891%) and the Freestyle (80.605%) at the FEI Dressage World Cup qualifier in Mexico on 23–25 October.
Ecuador's Julio Mendoza Loor won both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle at the FEI Dressage World Cup event in Mexico, held at Rancho St. Vincent in Lerma on 23–25 October. His horse was Jewel's Goldstrike, a 15-year-old Dutch-bred gelding.
Mendoza Loor scored 73.891% in the Grand Prix on the 24th, more than two percentage points ahead of second place. In the Freestyle on the 25th, a test the rider designs to music, he scored 80.605%. All five judges placed him first in both classes. Spectator judging, in which the audience scores the ride, gave his Freestyle 82.493, and the public ranked the top two in the same order as the judges.
Second in both classes were Sweden's Patrik Kittel and Touchdown, the 2024 World Cup winners, with 71.804% in the Grand Prix and 78.800% in the Freestyle. Third in the Grand Prix were Kevin Kohmann of the United States and Sonata MF (69.065%). Third in the Freestyle were Lithuania's Justina Vanagaite-Samuile and Nabab (74.985%).
Background
The event is the only dressage World Cup qualifier held in Central and Latin America, and this was its third edition. Riders from 12 nations took part, and eight combinations started the World Cup Grand Prix. Previous winners were Matthias Rath of Germany in 2025 and Borja Carrascosa of Spain in 2024.
According to Dressage-News, Mendoza Loor and Goldstrike competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, at this year's World Championships in Aachen, Germany, and at the World Cup Final in Fort Worth, United States, in April. This Freestyle score was the pair's best since their gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games. Ecuador does not belong to an established World Cup league such as North America, so he will only learn near the end of qualifying whether he is invited to the Final. Eighteen riders from around the world are invited.
Kittel's points moved him close to the top of the Western European League, which has held only one of its ten qualifiers so far. Kohmann, who won the Devon, United States, qualifier last month, added these points to go top of the North American League. In North America, three combinations go to the Final, based on each combination's three best qualifying results.
What comes next
The next North American League qualifier is in Toronto, Canada, on 9–14 November. The World Cup Final will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, next March.