Andres Rodriguez and Caballito Win $34,000 Spy Coast Farm 1.45m

A $34,000 1.45m FEI speed class was also held at WEF on Thursday with a win for Venezuela’s Andres Rodriguez and Caballito. Seventy five-entries showed, with 15 clear rounds. Rodriguez and Arao Enterprises Caballito had a blazing fast time of 62.13 seconds. They beat Kent Farrington’s round in 63.31 seconds with Haity McNerney and Amalaya Investments’ Cha Cha Cha 7. Alvaro Tejada (GUA) with Palo Blanco Stables’ Voltaral Palo Blanco stopped the clock in 63.73 seconds. Conor Swail (IRL) and Simba de la Roque placed fourth in 65.36 seconds.

Rodriguez has had a fantastic WEF circuit, with multiple wins, including a big win with Caballito in week ten’s $127,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix CSI 3*. On Thursday, the 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Contendro x Argentinus) took the class by storm in a fantastic round.

“It was very fast today,” Rodriguez stated. “It was sort of one of those classes where you go all in, and if it works, it works. Our plan at the beginning was to take a lot of risk and if a rail comes down, then we school the horse for the 1.50m class that has $100,000, but if everything keeps going then obviously keep going. I was going pretty fast in the last line, which when I walked it, I thought it was crazy to do six strides. But I jumped the vertical and it was right there, so I took the chance and it worked.”

“When I saw Conor’s round, I said okay, ‘This is really annoying because it is getting very fast.’ Then Kent almost beat him by two seconds, and then it was to the point where I had to go all in,” Rodriguez continued. “Kent did seven strides. I did one stride less than him from jump four to five. I did eight strides and he did nine strides, and on the last line he did seven and I did six.”