Samuel Parot (CHI) and Captain Z conquered 33 entries to claim victory in Saturday’s $139,000 Earl Scruggs Music Festival Grand Prix CSI 3* at Tryon Resort. The duo jumped-off to a time of 39.55 seconds. Cinching second prize was Sean Jobin (CAN) and Darius, a 2008 Dutch Warmblood gelding (Warrant x Calvados) owned by Foxridge Farms Stables, with a time of 43.56 seconds. Claiming third at a time of 42.36 seconds with four faults was Audrey Muscari (USA) and her own Cicero HS, a 2010 Westphalian gelding (Carlucchi 13 x Funke).

More than half of the 33 entries attempted the first round before Juan Ortiz produced a faultless round to start the jump-off list, where only 5 entries progressed to the final portion of the Ken Krome (USA) course. Parot and his own Captain Z, the 2012 Zangersheide gelding (Calvino Z x Voltaire) bested the very difficult course by Krome. “It was a very difficult course, not easy at all. There were a lot of very tight turns and rollbacks everywhere except for the last line. You needed to do u-turn after u-turn, and it was very difficult, but good for my horse. My horse was fantastic.”

Captain Z and Parot have had an extremely successful Tryon Summer Series together, but tonight marks their first major victory as a pair. “This is his first big Grand Prix win,” said Parot about the winning mount of the night. “He’s jumped clear in FEI classes before, like in the 2*. But he’s young: he’s nine years old, and he’s really becoming better and better.

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