Italy’s Lorenzo de Luca and Stephex Stables’ Egano van het Slogenhof jumped to victory in the $35,000 Illustrated Properties 1.45m Classic on Friday during week seven of the 2016 Winter Equestrian Festival. WEF 7, sponsored by Suncast®, runs February 24-28, 2016. The week’s remaining highlight classes include the $380,000 Suncast® Grand Prix CSI 5* on Saturday evening and the $86,000 Suncast® 1.50m Championship Jumper Classic on Sunday. The 12-week WEF circuit runs through April 3 offering more than $9 million in prize money. Santiago Varela (ESP) set the speed track for 69 starters in Friday’s 1.45m with 20 clear rounds. Lorenzo de Luca and Egano van het Slogenhof were the winners in a blistering time of 64.72 seconds. Laura Chapot (USA) took second and third place honors, finishing second aboard her own and Mary Chapot’s Thornhill Kate in 65.12 seconds, and placing third with her own and McLain Ward’s Quointreau un Prince in a time of 65.41 seconds. Richie Moloney (IRL) and Equinimity LLC’s Alsvid clocked in fourth in 65.73 seconds. De Luca also took fifth place honors aboard Stephex Stables’ and his own Limestone Grey with a time of 65.78 seconds. De Luca went 26th in the order aboard his first mount, Limestone Grey, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Try-Time. His time with Limestone briefly held the lead, until Chapot and Quointreau un Prince came in 37th to take over. De Luca was not to be outdone, however, and returned three rounds later with Egano van het Slogenhof to reclaim his top spot. Chapot then jumped into second with Thornhill Kate, and Moloney jumped the fourth place time with Alsvid, pushing Limestone into fifth place overall. Class winner Egano van het Slogenhof is a 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding by Electro x Nagano. The horse showed successfully under Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet until very recently when the horse flew to Florida and De Luca took over the ride. “Last week he jumped a couple of classes and today was already good,” De Luca stated. “He is a very competitive horse; so sweet, so fast, so I am really happy to have him here.” De Luca has been riding for Stephex Stables since December 2014 and brought eight horses to compete for Stephex at this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival. Speaking about his two rounds aboard Limestone and Egano, De Luca noted, “I tried a little bit with Limestone and then Laura Chapot went straight away into the lead. I know she is always really fast, so I tried again with Egano. Even if I do not know him that well, I know that he is really fast and smooth, and he jumped everything good. I am pleased about Limestone too. He jumped really well today. I have a few horses that are in really good shape, so I am happy about that.”
