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Laura Kraut Finishes 1-2 in Round 3 of WEF Challenge Cup at Winter Equestrian Festival
The WEF Challenge Cup, a nine week long series of $25,000 Thursday Grand Prix events, concludes in Tampa as part of the final week of the Winter Equestrian Festival. The Challenge Cup is also a major money qualifier for the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational to be held on Saturday night, April 2, 2005, under the lights at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. Today’s event, a CSI 3* competition was scored under FEI Article 238.2.2, Time First Jump-Off. 68 starters went to the post in the 1pm feature. Robert Ellis of Great Britain, the resident course designer at Hickstead, is designing the challenges this week in the Internationale Arena. 17 of the 68 horse and rider combinations managed to negotiate Ellis’s tough first test without penalty. Another 25 starters finished up the first round with four faults while an additional 10 came home with eight faults. A tough triple combination leading to the open water accounted for a majority of the penalties. It was an exciting jump-off track with long gallops and a number of chances for tight turns, but it was the final rollback to the last two jumps that proved to be the decision maker in today’s class. Ramiro Quintana aboard Turnabout Farm’s Hurricane set the pace early, as the third to go in the 17 horse tiebreaker. Quintana sprinted around the course in 40.43 seconds. Hurricane was the winner of this round of the WEF Challenge Cup Series last year with McLain Ward in the irons. Christine Tribble and Vegas were next and slid into second place with a finish time of 41.80 seconds. Double H Farm’s Goldika, the winner of Round One of this year’s Challenge Cup, was next with McLain Ward. Ward’s jump-off ride was incredibly fast but a knockdown coming home cost Ward the win today. His time of 37.30 seconds was the fastest of the day. Following Ward’s ride with Goldika, eight competitors tried and a number caught Quintana’s time, but all accumulated faults on their way to the finish line. Riding twelfth in the jump-off, Laura Kraut on Anthem, her first of two chances, took over the lead with a clean round clocked in at 39.75 seconds. Anthem is owned by the Summit Syndicate. Molly Ashe and Jane Clark’s Cocu were next and had Kraut’s time beat, but pulled the rail on the final fence. Ashe finished with four faults in 38.94 seconds. Kraut followed Ashe into the ring on her second mount for the timed tiebreaker. She was up on Miss Independent, owned by the Pasmore Stables. Kraut put in another flawless and furiously fast performance and when she blew across the finish line, the crowd was on their feet and the scoreboard was flashing a new top time of 38.27 seconds. Of the three challengers that followed, only Ken Berkley with Carlos Boy, owned by the Rivers Edge Group, came close. Berkley was clear in 40.52 seconds, good enough for a fourth place finish. Kraut tried to grasp today’s 1-2 finish. “I’m shocked!” she exclaimed. “I thought, wow, to win over 68 competitors is amazing enough, but to finish first and second is pretty incredible really. On a normal Sunday we’re up against thirty or thirty five, but in these Thursday classes the odds are really stacked against you, so to win is tough enough,” she laughed. “There are just so many good horse and rider combinations and with that many jumping off, you just have to go all out if you have any hope of winning and I did that today,” said Kraut. Kraut noted that having two horses in the jump-off was certainly an advantage. “After touring the jump-off track with Anthem I knew where I could make up a little time and go a little faster with Miss Independent,” she said. “I think I made up that time on the turn to the last line.” Kraut also explained that she had a chance to watch Quintana’s jump-off track. “I watched Ramiro go and he was blazing fast everywhere on the course and he left a stride out down one line,” Kraut detailed. “But he did go a little wide to that last line and I knew that was the only place I could catch him.” Kraut said that she’s just learning to be comfortable with today’s winner, Miss Independent. “Anthem is like an old shoe,” laughed Kraut. “He’s so comfortable for me. I’ve had him for five years and I feel I can jump on him and do anything. Miss Independent is new for me,” she said. “I’ve only been showing her for a year and this is her first time doing the grand prix level classes in Florida, so I’m really excited. She’s really talented and she’s so brave,” said Kraut. The Acorn Hill Speed Challenge is the Friday feature, scheduled to get underway at 1pm at the Internationale Arena. Week three’s main event is Sunday’s $50,000 Kilkenny/ICH Internationale Cup, CSI 3*. Start time is 2pm on Sunday. Official Results - #101 -$25,000 Kilkenny/ICH WEF Challenge Cup Series, Round 3, 02-10-05 – Internationale Arena
PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Kraut and Miss Independent win Round 3, $25,000 WEF Challenge Cup Series. Photo by Randi Muster |
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Wellington,
FL – February 10 – The third round of the $25,000 WEF Challenge
Cup Series took center stage on Thursday afternoon as the highlight
event at the Kilkenny/ICH Internationale, week three of the 2005 Winter
Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida. The festival, the nations
largest and longest running equestrian extravaganza, runs through March
13, 2005 at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club on Pierson Road in Wellington.
