Just shy of 50 combinations set out to contest the track in the final four-star event of the week on a brisk south Florida morning with 12 of those entries proving good enough to earn themselves a spot in the jump-off. The short track was filled with some of the sport’s best including McLain Ward, Laura Kraut, and Nicola Philippaerts.
Mark McAuley (IRL), who secured the second place position in the previous night’s $216,000 NetJets Grand Prix CSI4*, looked like he would be the class victor until Olympian Nicola Philippaerts (BEL) managed to shave just under a second off of his time. Philippaerts’s time would hold until Irishman Jordan Coyle contested the course with the Elan Farm’s 11-year-old Swedish Warmblood stallion Ariso (Casall x Contender). The pair are no strangers to the victory gallop after having won several five-star and four-star events including Coyle’s first five-star grand prix win in the $230,000 Adequan Major League Show Jumping Grand Prix CSI5* in December of 2021.
“I’ve had him for two years now after purchasing him from Shane Sweetnam, and he has just been a great horse for me,” explained Coyle. “Things didn’t exactly go according to plan last night so we decided to jump him again today and it turned out well.”
The duo returned toward the end of the line-up and managed to shave several precious moments off the clock to land in a clean 37.29 seconds.
“He is turning out to be very fast,” continued Coyle. “Some people would say it’s me but I think it is the horse, and if I just do what everyone else does he is normally faster. I watched Mark [McAuley], and he had a very good round so I just tried to replicate what he did.”
Philippaerts, who was also third in the previous night’s grand prix, maintained his second-place position with his 11-year-old KWPN stallion Gijs (Kashmir Van Schuttershof x Numero Uno). The pair fell just two-tenths of a second short of Coyle in a time of 37.48 seconds. Coyle’s fellow countryman Bertram Allen rounded out the top three with his own Carlo 454 after crossing the final timers in 38.37.
The 2022 Winter Equestrian Festival will return Wednesday, February 2, 2022, with another week of two-star and four-star action and the much-anticipated Great Charity Challenge, sponsored by Fidelity Investments® during “Saturday Night Lights.”
