Ireland’s Conor Swail began the third week of competition at the 2015 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) just as he left off in week two, with another trip to the winner’s circle. After topping Sunday’s $34,000 Suncast® 1.50m Championship Jumper Classic riding Susan and Ariel Grange’s Martha Louise, Swail won Wednesday’s $34,000 FEI 1.45m speed class aboard his own Simba de la Roque, a nine-year-old Selle Francais gelding by Kannan x Allegreto. Sponsored by Adequan®, WEF 3 runs January 21-25, 2015. The week’s feature event is the $127,000 Adequan® Grand Prix CSI 3* on Saturday, January 24. The 12-week WEF circuit continues through March 29, awarding over $8.2 million in prize money. Leopoldo Palacios (VEN) is the course designer in the International Arena at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center for week three. Palacios kicked things off with 63 entries in the 1.45m speed class and saw 31 clear rounds with increasingly fast times. Shane Sweetnam (IRL) finished fourth in 55.90 seconds aboard Spy Coast Farm LLC’s Cyklon 1083. Emanuel Andrade (VEN) placed third aboard his own Nokia de Brekka in 55.13 seconds, and Abigail McArdle (USA) guided David McArdle’s Cosma 20 to second place honors in 54.76 seconds. Swail and Simba de la Roque finished well ahead of the others with the fastest round of the day in 53.06 seconds. Swail looks forward to developing his partnership with Simba de la Roque throughout the winter and hopes to step the horse up to the next level. “He will do the next 1.45m and maybe the 1.50m this week,” he noted. “It is just a learning curve. I think there is a lot more left in him and once we get to know each other he could possibly do a few 1.50m classes and maybe even a little more. He is a very exciting horse to have, and it is nice to own him myself too.”
