Wellington, FL – January 27, 2022 – The Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) continued at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) on January 27, 2022, with week three competition sponsored by NetJets. The International Arena at the venue held three international jumper classes with the $50,000 Adequan® WEF Challenge Cup Series Round Three as the feature. The class had the most entries of the day and rising to the top was Nayel Nassar (EGY) riding Igor Van De Wittemoere, owned by Evergate Stables, LLC.
WEF includes AA-rated hunter, jumper, and equitation competition and week three features CSI4* and CSI2*, sponsored by Helgstrand Jewellery, competition. The feature class of the week and part of the “Saturday Night Lights” series is the $216,000 NetJets Grand Prix CSI4* during Saturday Night Lights.
Peter Grant (CAN) produced a course which tested 66 first-round combinations across a thorough track which included both a triple bar and a triple combination to size up the competition. An impressive 22 countries were represented in the international event and by the halfway mark, seven of those had earned themselves space in the jump-off. Time was definitely a determining factor of the class as it kept eight entries from advancing to the short track. Alessandra Volpi (USA) and Tiffany Foster (CAN) made the decision to withdraw from the eventual returning field of 15 which left just over a dozen pairings for the second phase. Olympian Nassar took the early lead with his trusted partner Igor Van De Wittemoere and held it in 40.18 seconds.
Bluman and his own 10-year-old Selle Francais gelding Cachemire De Braize (Nissan Quality Touch Z x Jaguar Mail) laid down a tidy and fault-free effort with a time of 41.64 seconds, which was good enough to earn runner-up honors. Young up-and-comer Tanner Korotkin (USA) rounded out the top three on Volo’s Diamond. He and the 11-year-old OS gelding (Stakkatol x Baloubet Du Rouet) owned by Sandalwood Farms blazed ahead as the final combination to return and catapulted to the podium with a time of 42.01 seconds.
Source: Press release
Photo: ©Sportfot