Stars appear in Wellington for start of festive season
Stars have appeared as the holiday season gets underway at Wellington International, with the world’s fourth best ranked show jumper, USA’s Kent Farrington, leading the field in the $200,000 CSI4* Grand Prix aboard Greya, one of several talented horses in his string.
“It’s nice to be back in Wellington and have a win like this one,” Kent said, after winning the jump off in a time of 37.01 ahead of Israel’s Daniel Bluman and Hummer Z finishing in 37.17. “I travel all year, so it’s a nice way for me to be at home.”
Kent began riding the 10-year old Oldenburg mare when she was five. “She’s really just a phenomenal show jumper as you can see,” he said. “She’s unbelievable, careful. She’s super fast, a very modern type. I love this horse. She’s been great.”
The duo won the five-star $540,000 Rolex Grand Prix Ville de la Baule in France last summer. “That was our first big five-star show this summer,” Kent said. “That was our first kind of big win on a big stage.”
Kent has a few more stops before returning to Wellington for the Winter Equestrian Festival next year. He competes in Major League Show Jumping at La Quinta, Thermal, California before returning to Europe to contend the CHI 5* Geneva – an indoor show. Yesterday’s jump off brought back eight horse and rider combinations from the original field of 42 that set out to tackle the Anthony D’Ambrosio-designed track. It proved to be a fortuitous dress rehearsal for Kent and Greya.
“I was happy that the jump-off started on a line like you would see more in an indoor ring – an oxer short-turn back on another oxer,” said Kent. “And that’s something I really wanted to practice because her [Greya’s] next show is Geneva, so that was something I really wanted to work on here with the horse today.”
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