A
crowd of 8,476 spectators turned out on the final Sunday of the Winter
Equestrian Festival at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington.
The hit or miss rain showers of the morning gave way to a splendid afternoon,
and the wall to wall crowd was treated to a memorable and dazzling display
of show jumping excellence from equestrian superstars from sixteen different
countries. When the dust had settled though, it was the United States
emerging victorious over Bulgaria as Greenwich, Connecticut’s Kent
Farrington and 2005 AGA Horse of the Year Madison topped Samantha McIntosh
and Loxley for the hard fought win in the $150,000 U.S. Open Jumper Championship,
CSIO-5*, presented by CN.Forty-seven starters lined up for the final event of the Wellington portion of the 2006 Winter Equestrian Festival. Steve Stephens of the United States designed today’s U.S Open Jumper Championship course. Scoring was under FEI Art. 238.2.2, Time First Jump-Off. The course featured fourteen numbered obstacles with seventeen jumping efforts, including an early double combination (3a-b) and a late triple combination (11a-b-c). The water jump and nine verticals, combined with a snug time allowed added to today’s test. As tough as the test was, thirteen competitors from six countries mastered the first round course to qualify for the speed round. Another four riders jumped fault free, but failed to get home in time, while eleven horse and rider combinations tallied four faults for their single knockdown. Six riders had two rails, eight duos had more than eight faults, and five were eliminated or retired.
The stage was set and the dazzling all-star jump-off that followed round one was a brilliant display of show jumping skills by one top rider after another.
Today’s winner Kent Farrington was the eighth rider back for tiebreaker. He and his partner Madison, owned by Alexa Weeks, laid down an incredible trip, knocking a full second off of McIntosh’s time. Farrington put a time of 33.15 seconds at the top of the leader board for the remaining five to chase.
“I knew they’d have to chase to catch me,” said Farrington, noting that his turn for home was where he won the class. “I didn’t think it was uncatchable, but I had one less stride on the turn to the wall, and if someone had got that really good and not get as parked as I did, they could have nipped me by a second. I rolled back really short,” he detailed. “I was going to try and leave one out, but I got a little ratty in the turn, and I had to add it in at the last moment. That wall is sort of an awkward fence and it made the eight strides get really long to the last jump. But she’s a fighter, and I’m a fighter so we just kicked on and went for it.”
Farrington talked about his partner Madison, who leads again for AGA Horse of the Year. “She’s a really special horse. She’s been a career horse for me. I don’t really know how good she can be, that’s yet to be determined. We’ll take her to the World Cup and see how she does there.
Bulgaria’s McIntosh, who returns to Europe tomorrow, was thrilled with her second top finish in as many weeks. “It was pretty tough with thirteen in the jump-off, especially after having only three last week,” she said. “A lot of really good horses, really fast horses. I gave my best, and I think my horse did the same. I’m pretty happy with second place.”
“It was fun,” said third place finisher Kursinski. “Because of the selection trials in two weeks, I started Roxana a little late on purpose. And, we’ve had a little bad luck in each grand prix leading up to this one. You know, one down, one mistake. Today she felt great so I thought, let’s go for it,” she said with a smile. “The footing was much better than I expected. This morning I was nervous about the footing. In fact, I was thinking I might not go with her because of the trials coming up. But it turned out great. She loves to go fast. Today was the perfect preparation for those trials after all,” admitted Kursinski. “I love to represent this country. There is nothing like competing against the best in the world, if you have the horse to do it. And I think I have a great horse to do it. We know each other so much better than we did a year ago.”
Farrington talked about the legendary show jumping stars he beat in today’s main event. “It’s just an honor to be in that class. To have the opportunity to compete against the riders I read about when I was growing up and to win against horses of that caliber is just a real thrill for me.”
Beezie Madden topped Mario Deslauriers of Canada to win the top prize in the FTI Rider Challenge, a new series this year that rewarded consistency. “We don’t have that kind of bonus ($100,000) in show jumping very often, so I’m thrilled to win it,” said Beezie Madden following her victory in the FTI Rider Challenge. “We’re building a house right now, and that amount is about the same amount as we went over budget on, so it’s perfect,” she laughed. Madden was thrilled too with the performance of Authentic, after the trouble on Friday night’s Nations Cup course. “I was very happy. The other night I took a shot with him and he slipped, so I might have been a little conservative today. Luckily, not much bothers him, and he seemed to be right back on form today.”
With the official tally still to come, it was apparent that Sunday’s near capacity crowd pushed the seven week total attendance for this year’s festival to well over 110,000 spectators for the seven week run.
 Kent Farrington |
 Samantha McIntosh |
 Anne Kursinski |
 Beezie Madden |
www.stadiumjumping.com
photos: professionalsphoto.com