Hiatus at Wellington International until WEF kicks off 2025
The next time Wellington International showground opens its gates it will be for the start of the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] 2025, kicking off the New Year on January 1. In the pre-season build up, the final Saturday Night class of 2024 saw victory for USA’s Charlie Jayne and One And Only, owned by Kaneb Equine Ventures LLC.
FEI Level III course designer Anna Catalina “Catsy” Cruz of Mexico set the track, which narrowed 45 entries down to six, and kept the crowd in suspense for the highlight of the ESP Holiday Finale show. Last to go in the jump off for the $50,000 Saturday Night Lights’ Grand Prix, Charlie clocked up a winning time of 36.714 seconds, under a second of a difference from Germany’s Tony Stormanns and Donjon D’Asschaut time of 37.326 seconds. Lebanon’s Jad Dana, who is based year-round in Wellington, and a regular success story in the end of the year shows, took third with Itchcock Des Dames on 37.699 seconds.
WEF is the largest and longest-running equestrian competition series in the world, hosting 42 weeks of competition annually across the equestrian disciplines of show jumping, hunters, dressage and para-dressage and welcoming over 350,000 spectators, 15,000 horses and 7,500 competitors. In 2024, WEF contributed more than $400 million in economic impact to Palm Beach County. The end of year shows give riders a chance to introduce new horses to the Wellington International showground and many of those competing this month will be back on center stage at WEF, which hosts 7,000 horses from 42 countries and all 50 US states for the Hunter/Jumper classes.
It has been an eventful year for Wellington and its showgrounds. The former majority owners of Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, Mark Bellissimo, Marsha Dammerman, Lisa Lourie, and Roger Smith, formed a new entity, WI FL Acquisition, LLC, and the completion of its purchase of Wellington International from Global Equestrian Group was announced in November. Murray S. Kessler was named as Chief Executive Officer of Wellington International.
“With the sale process complete, we can now turn to what we do best,” Wellington International President Michael Stone was quoted at the time. “Focusing on the shows, the horses, the riders and the equestrian season here in Wellington with a renewed purpose and committed ownership group.”
This could be interesting: