Farrington Takes Second WIN At The CP National Horse Show with the $250,000 FEI World Cup Jumping

Earlier this week, Kent Farrington sat in the press conference for the $130,000 CP Grand Prix, which he won aboard Amalaya Investments’ Willow, and discussed how he’d planned out the CP National Horse Show to best play to his mounts’ strengths. All that planning paid off as Farrington not only won Thursday’s competitions but also today’s $250,000 Longines Grand Prix CSI4*-W with Amalaya Investments’ Voyeur.

“I brought two horses that I thought would be competitive,” he said. “I rode my best horse in the grand prix [today], and they both performed up [to my expectations]. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

Guilherme Jorge set the tracks for this afternoon’s class, as well as for the class Farrington won on Thursday. 

“We want to start a little easier and make it tougher throughout the week,” said Jorge. “The riders had the same plan I did because they kept jumping better and better.”

Out of the 36 original starters, 13 returned for the jump-off. Out of those, 11 went clear, so it quickly turned into a race for the finish almost as furious as yesterday’s Breeder’s Cup Classic. Farrington’s time of 33.19 was the fastest over Laura Kraut and Deauville S (34.05) and Olivier Phillipaerts and H&M Challenge V/D Begijnakker Z (34.07).

“Laura and I watched the first couple together. It really comes down to which plan suits your horse,” said Farrington. “The first line [in the jump-off] was seven strides to the wall, and Laura and I both did that the same, and then it was just really what suited your horse and how tight you could roll back to the vertical and how fast you could go to the double and the last fence. Today I was just on a much more experienced horse than Laura.”

Voyeur, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Tolano van’t Riethof x Loma) owned by Amalaya Investments, had a successful tour with Farrington at Spruce Meadows in Alberta this summer and was Farrington’s mount for last year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France). But even with their victories, Farrington remarked that the horse isn’t the easiest. 

“He’s pretty wild, actually,” he said. “Laura [Kraut] and I were joking about what we consider a normal horse and what others consider a normal horse. We’re known for riding erratic horses. He’s very fresh, and he has a lot of blood. He’s an aggressive horse. You have to be a little bit awake when you’re riding him because he can spin very quickly. He spooks at a lot of things, and he’s a handful, but I think most of the good ones are.”

Source: The Chronicle of the Horse