World No. 1 Kent Farrington Rides Greya to Victory in Wellington CSI4* Grand Prix

$200,000 Holiday & Horses CSI4* Grand Prix 1.55m

World No. 1 Kent Farrington rode Greya to victory in the $200,000 Holiday & Horses CSI4* at Wellington, Florida Sunday in what the USA rider described as a warmup for the Rolex Grand Slam in Geneva Dec. 10-14.

Kent and the 11-year-old mare were double clear in a jump off time of 39.34 secs, more than six seconds faster than second place.

Fellow American Hallie Grimes on Karoline of Ballmore, 15-year-old Belgian-bred mare, was runner up, also double clear on a time of 45,78 secs.

Shane Sweetnam of Ireland on the nine-year-old Coriaan van Klapscheut Z placed third with one rail down for four faults and a time of 42.26.

This was the eighth victory for Kent, based in Wellington, and Greya in the past 12 months but this competition gave him a chance to prepare for the $2.5 million Geneva event as at the highest level of the sport the differences between the riders are "fractions and centimeters."

"I'm here training for Geneva which comes up and that will be big level and best guys full speed so to win the class today, my jump off is unnecessary to train what I'm trying to do," he said. "It's going to take that to win. The plan is to bring Greya, Toulayna and Garrison, but you know with horses they sometimes have different ideas. So that is our current plan and hopefully that will be the plan."

The Geneva Grand Slam has prize money of €2,180,000/US$2.5 million. 

He described Greya as "an extremely careful horse" that has to be managed accordingly.

"All horses have different issues and weaknesses that you're trying to build into strengths or help them with their weakness. And that's always what I'm trying to do. And that's even what I was trying to do today."

Results:

$200,000 Holiday & Horses CSI4* Grand Prix 1.55m

Place Horse/Rider Jump Off Fault Time

1 GREYA/KENT FARRINGTON USA 0 39.34 secs.

2 KAROLINE OF BALLMORE/HALLIE GRIMES USA 0 45.78

3 CORIAAN VAN KLAPSCHEUT Z/SHANE SWEETNAM IRL 4 42.46

4 DIOR/ERYNN BALLARD CAN 4 44.42

5 ITCHCOCK DES DAMES/JAD DANA LBN 4 44.48

6 NOVAK DE KALVARIE/STEPHANIE MACIEIRA BRA 8 44.36

7 KAPITAAL L/DANIEL BLUMAN ISR 8 46.93

8 CLITSCHKO 17/VANESSA HOOD ELIM.

Photo: Kent Farrington, world No. 1 rider, on Greya in the $200,000 CSI4* Grand Prix at Wellington, Florida. © Ken Braddick/Jumper-News.US