Wellington, Florida, USA – March 12, 2022 – International competition leading up to Saturday night’s event consisted of the $50,000 Corro Grand Prix CSI 2*. Darragh Kerins (IRL) headed up the victory gallop as he ultimately took the win with Eve Jobs’s 13-year-old Selle Francais gelding Valentino Tuiliere (Diamant De Semilly x Silvio).
Forty-six pairings representative of 10 individual nations navigated through Wade’s two-star track. Nine entries were able to produce a clear first round to qualify for the shortened track, and nine fell victim to the penalty of a downed rail. The time allowed knocked three more riders out of contention. Rebecca Conway (USA) led the way as the first to return but put four faults on the board. Ireland’s Cian O’Connor (IRL) followed and produced the first double-clear effort aboard Taj Mahal. The challengers got quicker as the class went on, but Kerins was the only one of the contenders to stop the clock under 41 seconds to hold on to the lead.
“I’ve only been riding him since the beginning of this circuit,” explained Kerins. “Eve [Jobs] has done a lot of successful things with him, and she is coming in the next couple weeks, so I have just been keeping him going.”
The win was extra sweet for Kerins who says he has been knocking on the door of a top finish for several weeks.
“I jumped him in a two-star grand prix a couple of weeks ago, and he was very good but just had one down,” he added. “I was really disappointed because I haven’t gotten into a jump-off with him before. Today when we went clear I decided I was really going to give it my best shot.”
Carly Anthony (USA) and Jet Blue, who were the winners of Thursday’s $37,000 Corro 1.45m Grand Prix Qualifier CSI2* class, once again produced a top performance. She and the Portfolio Horses LLC’s 11-year-old KWPN gelding (VDL Zirocco Blue) clocked in at 41.13 seconds which put them just slightly above Kerins’s winning time. Fellow American Chloe Reid (USA) rode the third-best round of the jump-off. Reid piloted Crossover 4, a nine-year-old Hanoverian stallion (Cascadello x Chacco-Blue) owned by Team Reid LLC, through a clear round with a time of 41.42 seconds.
Final Results – $50,000 Corro Grand Prix CSI 2*
1) Darragh Kerins (IRL) & Valentino Tuiliere – 0 / 0 – 40.78
2) Carly Anthony (USA) & Jet Blue – 0 / 0 – 41.13
3) Chloe Reid (USA) & Crossover 4 – 0 / 0 – 41.42
Source: Press Release from Jenninfer Wood Median Inc. for ESP – Equestrian Sport Productions / WEF – Winter Equestrian Festival
Photos: © Sportfot
Categories: CSI 2*, English, Jumper News Ireland, Wellington International
