The Lugano Diamonds Split Rock Jumping Tour (SRJT) welcomed a packed house to the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday night for the $250,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Fort Worth CSI4*-W, presented by Lugano Diamonds. Much to the delight of the crowd, athletes put forth an exciting second round with a risky rollback at play that would knock the Irish off their winning streak and ultimately see the youngest contender of the night, 19-year-old Skylar Wireman (USA) secure her first FEI Jumping World Cup™ win with her own Tornado (Diarado x Chacco-Blue).
Athletes from eight nations would contest Anderson Lima’s (BRA) 16-effort first-round track with six pairs navigating the challenge fault-free. More than one-third of the class would dislodge the penultimate fence on course, a 1.65m liverpool vertical just out of the corner seven strides from North American League oxer at the last. Several pairs would also incur penalties in the combinations, with a majority of those rails coming at the “B” element of the triple (vertical-oxer-vertical) combination and the “A” element of the double (oxer-vertical) combination.
Third to go in round one, Jill Humphrey (USA) delivered the first clear round of the night to lead the way in the jump-off aboard Branscomb Farms LLC’s Chromatic BF (Connor x Concept 2). She opened the door for an impressive pace, taking a tight turn from the oxer at fence 3 inside of unused elements on the course to a new vertical for round two. While her risk paid off for the quickest time of the night in 34.69 seconds, it was also costly as she picked up four faults at the oxer following the inside turn. Wireman entered next with a plan to match Humphrey’s track, but realized it wouldn’t be possible after leaving a stride out to the oxer ahead of the inside turn. Her quick change in plan ultimately earned Wireman the advantage with a clear round to take the lead in 36.54 seconds.