The Trelawny Trailblazers are proving tough to catch during the MLSJ 2023 season with a third victory in Saturday's $346,000 Cabana Coast 5* Team Competition in Monterrey, Mexico.
The Trailblazers now lead the MLSJ season standings by more than 30 points after team veteran Nayel Nassar (EGY) clinched his second gold-medal jump-off of the season, this time riding Jiminy Cricket (Colestus x Cornet Obolensky, breeder: Hartwig Rellensmann). He was put in the position to win thanks to clear first-round efforts by team stalwart Conor Swail (IRL) and Gamble (Campbell VDL x Quick Star, breeder: Stal Falkena-Olff), as well as Gregory Wathelet (BEL) aboard Nevados S (Calvados Z x Romualdo, breeder: Stanislaw Szurik) – the latter a newcomer to both the team and the MLSJ.
Nassar returned to familiar territory and set the standard for Ashley Vogel of the Spy Coast Spies to beat, but an unfortunate refusal in the middle of the second-round track with Ceres van het Moeshof (Ogano Sitte x Mozart des Hayettes) settled her team with silver. Vogel was joined by Irish teammates Shane Sweetnam on RR Combella (Cornet du Lys x Indoctro) and Jordan Coyle riding For Gold (For Fashion x Heraldik).
Beating out the Crusaders in the bronze medal jump-off, Team KPF's Eduardo Menezes, Natalie Dean and Zoe Conter climbed onto the podium in third.
As the Trailblazers ride a wave of momentum after the eighth leg of Major League Show Jumping, attention now turns to the season finale in Palm Springs, CA, in December.
MLSJ action concludes at Concurso La Silla on Sunday with the GNP Seguros 5* Grand Prix of Monterrey taking the spotlight at 3 p.m. CT.