It was an evening of world-class showjumping sport on Thursday at Santa Anita Park for the Lugano Diamonds Split Rock Jumping Tour’s (SRJT) Santa Anita CSI5*-W in partnership with 1/ST, as 73 horse-and-rider combinations took on the $125,000 Lugano Diamonds 1.50m Welcome CSI5*-W. At the end of an eight-horse jump-off, it came down to the final pair and they delivered – Lillie Keenan (USA) and Kick On (Warrior x Caretino Glory), owned by Chansonette Farm LLC, left no stone unturned as they clocked in nearly a second ahead of the previous leaders to clinch the victory.
The compact indoor-inspired arena saw 16 jumping efforts set by Anderson Lima of Brazil, challenging the 73 starters with a fairly tight time-allowed of 74 seconds, that would deny six combinations a spot in the jump-off who were otherwise fault-free over the fences. The same area of the arena that proved troublesome on Wednesday evening once again tested competitors with an oxer set just out of the corner going away from the ingate past the scoreboard.
Despite some of the technical elements of the course, the first clear round came from the first pair in the ring, Abdulrahman Alrajhi (KSA) with his Paris Olympic mount, Ventago, who seemed to navigate the test with ease. A jump-off was not guaranteed until fifteen rounds later when Callie Schott (USA) and Garant matched their effort. The clear rounds began to flow as Shawn Casady (USA), Carly Anthony (USA), U.S. Olympic gold medalist Laura Kraut (USA), U.S. Olympic silver medalist Jessica Springsteen (USA), and Longines Jumping FEI World Cup™ North American League leader Daniel Bluman (ISR) joined the good list. Keenan would follow ten rounds after Bluman, while none of the 18 remaining combinations behind her could match the clear effort to keep an eight-horse jump-off.
Alrajhi once again led the way with a clear round, putting some pressure on in the jump-off, however his time left room for improvement as he clocked in at 37.70 seconds. Schott would follow and find the time with an impressive 36.59-second finish, but it came at the expense of two rails. Anthony and Heavenly W (Calvaro F.C. x Quidam de Revel), owned by Portfolio Horses LLC, would execute some tight turns around the track to overtake Alrajhi’s lead with a new time-to-beat of 36.85 seconds. Kraut gave a valiant effort on Tres Bien Z, but came in just off the pace with a finish time of 37.33 seconds. Wednesday’s $35,000 C. Jarvis Insurance 1.45m Special Two Phase CSI5* winners, Springsteen and Stone Hill Farm’s Naomi van het Keizershof (Cardento 933 x For Pleasure), once again delivered a solid performance, edging their way ahead of Kraut yet still behind Anthony at 37.26 seconds.
Anthony’s lead seemed hard to catch, but Keenan still remained as the final athlete to tackle the challenge. “My turn to the [double] combination was on the edge of risk,” Keenan reflected of her ride that clocked in at 35.91 seconds for the win, nearly a second ahead of Anthony. “My horse is incredibly game and I came in quite hot. I planned on bending the one stride [combination] which was a bit of a questionable risk, but I knew he could do it.”
With Keenan securing the win, Anthony would settle for second place while Springsteen returned to the podium in third, Kraut finished fourth and Alrajhi took fifth place.
Thursday’s competition qualified athletes for the week’s feature event, the $400,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Los Angeles CSI5*-W, presented by Lugano Diamonds, on Saturday, November 23 where they will look to gain qualifying points towards the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals for a possible spot at World Cup Finals in Basel, Switzerland, in April 2025.
Results here.
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