America’s Kent Farrington (Wellington, FL) topped the field of 18 in the $50,000 Weston Canadian Open tonight at the Royal Horse Show, producing one of just five clean rounds of the night and taking home a tidy sum of $16,500 for their efforts.
Riding Voyeur, a peppy little gelding, the pair sped around the ring, rubbing more than one fence, but having luck on their side as all the rails stayed put. Many tonight were not nearly so lucky over Michel Vaillancourt’s difficult course which included three double combinations. First was a vertical to an oxer with a wide spread at the beginning of the course, then the triple-bar to a vertical almost immediately after, and a very tricky set of double verticals at the end of the course, heading toward the in-gate.
The top five finishers did so on clean rounds with very quick times. From there, however, the scores got higher and higher as rails flew from just about every jump on course tonight.
“The rounds here are always competitive,” related Farrington. “Even though there are not a lot of horses, the ones that are in the classes are always top horses with very, very good riders. It’s going to take a good round to win any class at this show. When I walked the course I walked a pretty aggressive path. I wasn’t sure it would win, but I thought if it went well, for sure I’d be top three.”
“Captain Canada” Ian Millar had the unfortunate luck of being first on course, and the wind was just not with him tonight; Star Power pulled a handful of rails and had a time fault, finishing on a score of 66.99 seconds and 21 faults.
Nonetheless, Millar was awarded the Whitaker Award this evening, as the highest placed Canadian rider on the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Rolex Rankings list competing at the Royal.
The Royal Horse Show will wrap-up tomorrow with an exciting matinee lineup including the crowd-pleasing “Canine-Equine Challenge”, prior to the evening’s sold-out performance featuring the $75,000 Ricoh Big Ben Challenge. The 90th Royal Agricultural Winter Fair continues through Sunday, open November 11 from 9:00am to 6:00pm.
$50,000 Weston Canadian Open
Rider / Hometown / Horse / Score
1. Kent Farrington / Wellington, FL / Voyeur / 0 : 58.62
2. Lauren Hough / Wellington, FL / OhLaLa / 0 : 59.49
3. Yann Candele / Caledon, ON / Game Ready / 0 : 62.14
4. Reed Kessler / Lexington, KY / Mika / 0 : 65.50
5. Ainsley Vince / Burlington, ON / Frieda / 0 : 65.54
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