Kent Farrington Finds His Winning Way in the Friends of the Meadows Cup

On Friday, a field of 37 entries took to the International Arena at Spruce Meadows to compete in the Friends of the Meadows 1.60m competition. In a five-horse jump off, USA’s Kent Farrington piloted the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare Gazelle to a first place finish in 40.59 seconds. His win automatically qualifies him for Sunday’s prestigious $3 Million CP International Grand Prix CSI5*. “It was nice to get the qualification out of the way to now focus on the next one,” said Farrington. “I’ll enjoy this victory tonight but It will be back to work tomorrow.”

USA’s Lillie Keenan set the tone in the jump off with a lightening fast pace aboard the 11-year-old gelding Super Sox. The duo put up a challenging time of 41.09 seconds to finish in an eventual second place. “Lillie really went for it. She has a long-strided horse and on the roll back to the third fence I think she went wider than planned,” said Farrington. “My strategy was to go a little bit slower to number two and turn back very short – I think that’s where I made up the time.”

Finishing in third place was Switzerland’s Puis Schwizer and the 11-year-old gelding Leonard De La Ferme CH. The duo finished in 43.03 seconds, locking in their qualification for Sunday’s grand prix.

Source: Noelle Floyd