The first of 13 $15,000 Turf Tour Grand Prix classes of the 2018 season was captured by Andrew Ramsay and the spectacular mare Cocq a Doodle, who put in a quick and efficient double clear effort to finish with a jump off time of 37.921 seconds over a course designed by Christopher Jones. Held on the springy, all natural turf footing at Polo West, just off South Shore Boulevard, Friday’s Grand Prix and jumper classes of all levels wrapped up the fourth week of competition hosted by The Ridge at Wellington. Chasing Ramsay and Cocq a Doodle’s time was a field of 22 horse and rider combinations, with Ireland’s Darragh Kenny and Jessica Mendoza’s Horst Van de Mispelaere securing second with a jump of time of 38.021. Wednesday’s 1.30M Rising Star Classic winners, Sam Walker and Acardi Du Houssoit Z, gave the leading pair a run for their money with a double clear and a jump off time of 37.150, but a rail at the final fence cost them a placing.

Darragh Kenny (IRL) & Horst Van de Mispelaere

The ten-year-old KWPN bay mare Cocq A Doodle (Tolan R x Niagara) has been a successful Grand Prix horse for Ramsay, who rides and trains out of his own Shalanno Farms. Fresh off an October 2017 victory in the $130,000 Split Rock Farm CSI3* Grand Prix, Ramsay, Cocq a Doodle, and his other rides spent Wednesday and Friday of this past week sharpening up over the spacious warm-up and beautiful jumper rings of the Turf Tour. Ramsay called his rides at Polo West and his victory in the Grand Prix “a great start to 2018.”