It was a winning Friday afternoon for Ireland’s Bertram Allen who piloted the talented nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Pacino Amiro to a top finish on Friday, January 21, in the $37,000 Adequan® WEF Challenge Cup Round 2 CSI3* at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF).
There’s plenty of international show jumping still to come this week on the Derby Field at Equestrian Village at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center as part of CSI3* competition. Saturday features the Saturday’s $37,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Jumper Classic and $10,000 Hermès U25 Welcome, and the action doesn’t slow down Sunday with the $137,000 Restylane Grand Prix CSI3* followed by the $25,000 Hermès U25 Grand Prix. All feature classes will be available to watch for free on the livestream.
Friday’s class had a starting field of 78 entries contest the track set by course designer Oscar Soberon (USA) with a total of 12 electing to return for the jump-off. In the second round, many combinations opted to do nine strides to the final fence on course, but Allen and the gelding owned by Aiden McGregory moved swiftly in eight strides to fly over the final oxer and cross the finish line in 39.72 seconds.
“I thought it was a good, tough class, and it was quite a long track in the jump-off,” he said. “My guy is a little bit inexperienced; you could see that at the start of the jump-off but the more he went, the better he got. I could use his big stride in the big arena, so it worked well for me. He’s only nine so he’s only stepping up to this level but he’s a very genuine, kind horse that’s always trying do the right thing.”
U.S. rider Paris Sellon put forth a clear effort over the shortened track aboard the 12-year-old Oldenburg mare Anna Jo for Willow Grace Farm, finishing just over a second off the lead in a time of 40.77 seconds. With the first double clear effort of the day, Enrique Gonzalez (MEX) and his own 14-year-old mare Chacna held on for a third-place finish, stopping the timers at 42.40 seconds.
Like Thursday’s 1.45m winner Sydney Shulman, Allen had only great things to say about the quality of the footing and opportunity to jump on the derby field.
“The field is fantastic. I love it,” he said. “The ground and everything is really, really good and the horses love it. It’s beautiful. In two weeks, we’re back out here, so I’m going to skip next week just to make sure I can jump as much as I can on the grass. I think it’s brilliant.”
Allen will continue to campaign at WEF for the remainder of the winter circuit with his focus on the talented young gelding to continue to develop in international competition.
“Obviously there’s not much happening in Europe, so we said we’d come over here again,” he said. “We were here last year, and we’re just going to take it week by week. Pacino Amiro is probably going to be my best horse, so I’ll just try to develop him up to the CSI5* shows hopefully.”
Final Results: $37,000 Adequan® WEF Challenge Cup Round 2
1. PACINO AMIRO: 2012: Irish Sport Horse gelding by Pacino x Carnone Dancing Queen
BERTRAM ALLEN (IRL), Aiden McGregory: 0/0/39.72
2. ANNA JO: 2009 Oldenburg mare by Acodetto 2 x For Pleasure
PARIS SELLON (USA), Willow Grace Farm: 0/0/40.77
3. CHACNA: 2007 Hanoverian mare by Chacco-Blue x Narew XX
ENRIQUE GONZALEZ (MEX), Enrique Gonzalez: 0/0/42.40
4. GOLDWIN: 2012 BWP gelding by Emrald x Divine Idylle GTW De Tinmont
LAURA KRAUT (USA), Stars and Stripes: 0/0/42.73
5. CATINKA 25: 2009 Oldenburg mare by Catoki x Luxano
VANESSA MANNIX (CAN), Vanessa Mannix: 0/0/43.79
6. BALOU DU REVENTON: 2006 Oldenburg stallion by Cornet Obolensky x Georgia
BRIAN MOGGRE (USA), Ann C Thompson: 0/0/44.23
7. ZILTON SL Z: 2011 Zangersheide gelding by Zirocco Blue Vdl x Utopie
MICHAEL DUFFY (IRL), Katherine Duffy: 0/4/39.98
8. C HUNTER: 2007 Zangersheide stallion by Cassini II x Corland
LUCAS PORTER (USA), Sleepy P Ranch, LLC: 0/4/41.13
9. PALOMA: 2006 Holsteiner mare by Canaletto S x Henzo de la Brasserie
LAUREN HOUGH (USA), Kathleen Kamine: 0/4/41.29
10. DIAMONTE DARCO: 2005 GBSH mare by Unbelievable Darco x Unknown
WILTON PORTER (USA), Sleepy P Ranch, LLC: 0/4/43.01
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