Conor O’Regan’s goal (IRL) for the 2025 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) season was to slowly build Manchester (breeder: Bjorn Beuckelaers) up to a competitive level, but the Delshore Horses-owned gelding had other plans. The duo earned an early season win in the $32,000 Florida Coast Equipment CSI2* Qualifier on Friday of WEF 3 from an impressive field of 57 entries at Wellington International in Wellington, FL.
O’Regan piloted the 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Quidam de Revel x Codex) to one of 11 clear rounds over Peter Grant’s (CAN) course, and the top 12 returned to jump off in the winning round format on a clean slate.
“I think it helps that he’s a naturally fast horse; from my first round I had a pretty good advantage of going third to last, even though Jessica Springsteen and Jordan Coyle, who are both tremendously fast, were behind me,” said O’Regan. “I stuck to my plan and based my round off Wilton Porter’s—he went first and he did a great job. I knew my horse’s footspeed, and it’s a little better than [Wilton’s] so I tried to follow that plan and it paid off."
Springsteen (USA) came very close to catching O’Regan’s winning time of 39.53 seconds aboard Naomi Van Het Keizershof (breeder: Leon Otten), owned by Stone Hill Farm. Ultimately, she stopped the timers five hundredths of a second off the pace to end up second. With less than a second separating the top three, Daisy Farish (USA) took third aboard Etonemoi del Cabalero, owned by Lanes End Showjumping, in a time of 40.18.
Simon McCarthy winst CSI4* 1.50m
Gotcha (Floris van Leuken) carried Simon McCarthy (IRL) to top call earlier Friday morning in the $32,000 Dodd Technologies CSI4* 1.50m. McCarthy and the mare, owned by Rock Ridge Farms, crossed the timers in 66.56 seconds. A full second behind them for second place was fellow Irishman Richard Howley with Mansini LTD, owned by HK Horses, and in third was McKayla Langmeier (USA) and Jiselle NS, owned by Linda Langmeier
O’Regan piloted the 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Quidam de Revel x Codex) to one of 11 clear rounds over Peter Grant’s (CAN) course, and the top 12 returned to jump off in the winning round format on a clean slate.
“I think it helps that he’s a naturally fast horse; from my first round I had a pretty good advantage of going third to last, even though Jessica Springsteen and Jordan Coyle, who are both tremendously fast, were behind me,” said O’Regan. “I stuck to my plan and based my round off Wilton Porter’s—he went first and he did a great job. I knew my horse’s footspeed, and it’s a little better than [Wilton’s] so I tried to follow that plan and it paid off."
Springsteen (USA) came very close to catching O’Regan’s winning time of 39.53 seconds aboard Naomi Van Het Keizershof (breeder: Leon Otten), owned by Stone Hill Farm. Ultimately, she stopped the timers five hundredths of a second off the pace to end up second. With less than a second separating the top three, Daisy Farish (USA) took third aboard Etonemoi del Cabalero, owned by Lanes End Showjumping, in a time of 40.18.
Simon McCarthy winst CSI4* 1.50m
Gotcha (Floris van Leuken) carried Simon McCarthy (IRL) to top call earlier Friday morning in the $32,000 Dodd Technologies CSI4* 1.50m. McCarthy and the mare, owned by Rock Ridge Farms, crossed the timers in 66.56 seconds. A full second behind them for second place was fellow Irishman Richard Howley with Mansini LTD, owned by HK Horses, and in third was McKayla Langmeier (USA) and Jiselle NS, owned by Linda Langmeier