Kurten pockets €300,000 cheque after Brazil win

SHOW JUMPER Jessica Kurten pocketed the biggest cheque of her career on Saturday when earning €300,000 as winner of the Global Champions Tour final in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Her victory was thoroughly deserved when, last in a four-horse jump-off, the Antrim woman and Castle Forbes Libertina left her fellow superstar show jumpers Germany’s Meredith-Michaels Beerbaum and Ludger Beerbaum in her wake.

Not surprisingly, the German-based rider showered Lady Georgina Forbes’s 12-year-old mare with praise after the contest. “I have to thank Libertina for everything, she is a star,’’ Kurten said. “I saw Ludger go and he was close to perfection, but Libby was super. Libby was wonderful but, I had also the advantage of going last. It’s safer to go after Meredith and Ludger!”