International competition began early this morning in the WEC Grand Arena with the $40,000 1.45m CSI3* Two Phase Special. World-renowned course designer Alan Wade of Ireland set the two-phase track for 24 elite athletes where nine pairs found fault-free rounds. Aaron Vale (USA) secured his second victory of the week with Lori Osterstock’s I Adermie R 4 (Den Ham Blue R x Namelus R) after the pair flew to the top of the leaderboard with an unbeatable time.

Vale entered the arena at the halfway mark aboard the ten-year-old KPWN mare. The skilled combination flew past the competition, finishing the speed portion in an uncatchable 31.94 seconds.

“Alan Wade is a world-class course designer, and he has been creating great courses all week. The first phase let you jump around a bit and then the second phase had some fun elements. There was a hard inside turn from the Wheels Up jump to the fan vertical. It was hard to get inside to that smoothly, a lot of horses stopped or jumped a bit funny because it was a tough angle. I didn’t get there as smoothly as I wanted, but Adermie is quick footed enough that she kept it up. Then I found the rest forward and to my advantage Adermie is the type of horse the faster you go the better she jumps,” told Vale.

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