Four-time U.S. Olympic medalist Beezie Madden claimed victory in the $37,000 Douglas Elliman Real Estate 1.45m CSI5* aboard Jiva, and Georgina Bloomberg topped the Bainbridge Companies 1.40m CSI5* riding new mount Balotelli 5 to open week seven at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) on Wednesday, February 19.

WEF continues through March 29 at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL, with 12 consecutive weeks of world-class competition and $13 million dollars on offer. The seventh week of competition, sponsored by Lugano Diamonds, runs February 19-23 is recognized as a CSI5* and CSI2* by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). Featured events of the week include the $401,000 Lugano Diamonds Grand Prix CSI5* during “Saturday Night Lights”.

Madden and her lightning-fast mare bested a field of 73 over courses set by Santiago Varela (ESP). The top three in Wednesday’s feature class were all separated by less than a half of a second. Madden’s time of 46.52 seconds bumped Ireland’s Jordan Coyle and Kristen Vanderveen (USA) to a tie for second place with matching times of 46.81 seconds. Coyle piloted Centriko Volo for Celtic Park LLC, while Vanderveen rode Bull Run’s Divine Fortune, owned by her own Bull Run Jumpers Six LLC.

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