Week 4 of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) concluded its international events on the turf on Sunday with two top-level jumper classes. WEF 4, sponsored by The Bainbridge Companies, produced a week of elite national and international competition, with all FEI competition taking place on the Derby Field at Equestrian Village. The morning started with the $75,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Championship Jumper Classic CSI4* which saw victory for Samuel Hutton (GBR) and Abdel Saïd’s 13-year-old BWP gelding H&M Kirlo Van De Bosrand (Cardento 933 x Utrillo VD Heffinck) .
Anderson Lima’s (BRA) final 1.50m track of the week stumped a majority of the 42-horse field with several finishing on time faults and a multitude of others enduring a four-fault ending. Only a total of nine pairings were successful in their navigation of the course, and consisted of representatives of Ireland, United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Belgium. Shane Sweetnam (IRL) set the pace in the jump-off as the first to return and produced another clear round for a double-clean effort in a tight time with the Gizmo Partners LLC’s James Kann Cruz. Sweetnam held tight to the lead until Great Britain’s Samuel Hutton made his way back onto the field as one of the last to go. Hutton executed another flawless round to shave seven-tenths of a second from Sweetnam’s final number and finished in a time of 37.35 seconds.
“It was quite wet this morning, and I was a bit nervous to start because I haven’t jumped him on wet grass, but the footing was still fantastic,” explained Hutton. “When we got to the jump-off, there was an inside turn near the water that I hadn’t been planning to do, but Abdel [Saïd] came to me right before I went in and said to win, I had to do it. I thought it looked pretty tight but did it anyway and luckily it paid off.”
Hutton has not spent time at WEF in the past five years, but continued that he has so far been impressed with the competition and the venue.
“I have been really enjoying it here so far; there is amazing competition every week and the horses seem to like it here as well,” said Hutton. “I am hoping to get into one of the five-star events before the season is over but it is difficult with the caliber of riders here. I will keep trying though!”
Sweetnam’s time was still good enough to join the victory gallop with the red ribbon. He and the nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Kannan) had put forth a clear round through the timers in 37.42 seconds. Hyde Moffatt (CAN) rounded out the top three with Ariel Grange’s 14-year-old KWPN gelding Donjo (Zirocco Blue x Ahorn) after leaving all rails standing with a time of 39.55 seconds at the finish.
source: Wef