Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Mount St John Freestyle at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ 2026 in Falsterbo (SWE) ©FEI/Kim Lundin
Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and the beautiful mare Mount St John Freestyle have returned to the top of their respective world rankings in the very final countdown to this month’s FEI World Championships, which kick off in Aachen (GER) next week and when teams will have the first chance to earn a quota place for their nation at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
For horse-athlete combinations that never leave the ground in the competition arena except with their front feet in the pirouette, the Danish pair have made a record-breaking jump up from 31st to number one. Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle were a massive 634 points behind former world number ones Justin Verboomen (BEL) and Zonik Plus in the end-June rankings, but the Danish duo has now turned that substantial deficit into a 37-point advantage – another new record.
The record turnaround comes on the back of a 100% strike-rate this year, with the pair scoring six wins from six starts – two at the Danish 5* in Herning, where they posted a whopping 90.465% to the music, a double at the German 4* in Hagen and again at the Swedish 5* in Falsterbo, where they led Denmark to victory in the final Nations Cup of the season.
This is the seventh time that Laudrup-Dufour has topped the Dressage world rankings. Her first promotion to world number one – and the first-ever for a Danish Dressage athlete – came at the end of February last year. Her reign lasted four months before she ceded her throne to the 2025 FEI Dressage World Cup™ champions Charlotte Fry (GBR). Fast-track to the end of April this year, and the Danish pair created what was then a new world-record ascent up from 25th with a 512-point deficit to go back into pole position in the end-March rankings and hung on until the end of April, before relinquishing the top spot to Verboomen.
“It’s a great honour to enter the World Championship in Aachen placed as number one on the world ranking”, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour said. “Freestyle has performed outstanding the whole year and she feels top fit to show amazing sport in the iconic Aachen. I am beyond proud to represent my country and I can’t wait to join all the other nations with our Danish team. Freestyle did her first WEG in 2018 in Tryon, I did my first WEG in 2022 in Denmark and now we go together this year. It humbles me how lucky I am to go to another championship with my amazing ‘Free’.”
Laudrup-Dufour and the 17-year-old Hannoverian made their debut international outing together in December 2023 and have either won or finished in the top-three in every test since, including taking the Germans to a photo-finish for team gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where they also won the Grand Prix Special but then finished off the Freestyle podium. The pair also gave a more than good account of themselves at last year’s Europeans in Crozet (FRA), winning the Grand Prix and helping Denmark to team bronze, before coming to within 0.143% of Verboomen and Zonik Plus in the Belgians’ dance to Freestyle gold. Just to add another accolade to her multi-layered CV, 34-year-old Laudrup-Dufour also goes into Aachen as part of the Danish team bidding to defend their 2022 world title won on home footing in Herning.
Headed by Laudrup-Dufour on 2,019 points and with Justin Verboomen close behind on 1,982, the top-five is rounded out by Charlotte Fry (GBR) in third with 1,971, Germany’s Isabell Werth (1,939) fourth and this year’s FEI Dressage World Cup™ champion Becky Moody (GBR) fifth on 1,764, and no-one has any doubts that it will be this quintet that will be featuring in the battle for the podiums in Aachen.
And their incredible equine partners mirror that order and the points, with Mount St John Freestyle out in front ahead of Zonik Plus, Glamourdale (Fry), Wendy de Fontaine (Werth) and Jagerbomb (Moody).
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