Farrington and Creedance Make It Two-for-Two at Piazza di Siena CSIO5*

 May 29. 2021 

For the second time this week, Kent Farrington and his 14-year-old chestnut gelding Creedance, co-owned with Haity McNerney, stood tall and proud as the national anthem of the USA rang out across the arena at CSIO Rome Piazza di Siena after victory in Saturday’s ENI Small Grand Prix.

The competition title was deceptive, because the 1.55m track set by Italian course designer Uliano Vezzani was enormous, and it tested the very best with its technicality. However 13 horse-and-rider combinations found the key, and Farrington sealed it with a brilliant ride on his courageous steed.

With a tight time allowed of 74 seconds and three doubles on the course–two of them placed in succession at fences eight and nine, requiring great athleticism and accuracy–Vezzani’s first-round track was no easy ride. And the final line of two fences also took a heavy toll, with the penultimate red planks and the last, an oxer made of silver birch, dashing the hopes of many who had been clear that far.

Italy’s Ludovica Minoli was 13th to go when producing the first fault-free-round from her 12-year-old gelding Jus de Krack, and next to match that was Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat with PB Maserati. These two led the way in the jump-off, 32-year-old Minoli keeping a cool head to set the target with a steady clear in 43.30 seconds while Guerdat was six seconds faster but left the second-to-last on the floor. Lorenzo de Luca and Halifax stopped the clock at 37.30 and no faults on the short track. 

That really put it up to the final two, but the penultimate partnership left the result beyond doubt when Farrington scorched through the finish in 35.66. Creedance was sensational when winning Thursday’s Landrover Speed class, and again today was simply in a class of his own when he went into turbo drive and never came close to touching a pole. Last man in, Italy’s Alfonso opted for a careful clear to ensure he got into the ribbons with Donanso.   

Talking about how he maintains the confidence of his winning horse, Farrington described Creedance as “naturally very confident, and I just manage him the best that I can. He already wants to go fast so my job is to not let him go too fast!”

And asked how he planned his winning run against the clock, the 40-year-old American team silver medalist replied, “that’s also easy because I just do his plan, so it doesn’t really matter what everybody else does. He has his round and normally if I do a good job of doing his plan then it’s close to winning, or winning!”

Earlier in the week

Thursday, Farrington produced a spectacular win with Creedance in the Land Rover speed competition on the opening day of CSIO Rome Piazza di Siena 2021.

Farrington was 26th to go of 56 starters. Chasing a target time set at 61.90 by Jeroen Dubbeldam of the Netherlands and Forever SFN, the American rocketed into the lead when stopping the clock in 57.84 seconds and he simply couldn’t be caught.   

Dubbeldam had to settle for fifth place in the final analysis when runner-up spot in the speed class went to the only other rider to break the 60-second barrier, Frenchman Kevin Staut who steered Visconti Du Telman through the finish in 59.38 seconds. Third and fourth places went to 21-year-old Harry Charles (GBR) riding Valkiry de Zance and 27-year-old Filippo Bologni (ITA) with Diplomat.

Farrington has a special talent for jumping at speed while keeping his horses perfectly balanced. And he gave another of his master classes today with the Dutch Warmblood gelding Creedance (Lord Z x Notaris) who breezed home effortlessly.

Farrington has a tremendous record with Creedance that goes all the way back to 2015, and the pure consistency of Creedance’s performances is something quite unique. In 2019 alone the horse produced six major wins including a double at the Global Champions Tour in New York, and last year he posted 4* wins in both Wellington and Lexington, Kentucky. The American duo got 2021 off to a flying start with a 5* win in Wellington before traveling to Europe and claiming runner-up spot in the Audi Prize at ’s-Hertogenbosch CSI5* in The Netherlands in March.

Source: Piazza di Siena press releases