Jordan LaPlaca (USA) was the very first rider down the centerline in the Dutta Corp CDI3* Grand Prix, marking a host of firsts for the multi-talented horseman from Connecticut. Riding his own and Nancy Hutson’s 11-year-old gelding Gold Play (Grey Flannel x Sir Donnerhall II), they pulled off a personal best 68.913% performance to lead the class and hand them their first ever CDI win at their second show at the level.

Photo – Jordan LaPlaca & Gold Play. (©Centre Line Media)

Locally based Kevin Kohmann rode Equine Law Group’s 15-year-old Floriscount gelding, Famous, into second with 68.326%. Argentine rider Leonardo Antonio Godoy claimed third with 65.152% on Cristina Balcarce’s Lusitano stallion Marques Do Lis by Fabuloso Do Lis, who at 10 years old, was the youngest horse in the class.

Gold Play is LaPlaca’s first CDI grand prix horse, and he has produced the Oldenburg since finding him as a four-year-old at Hof Kasselmann in Germany. The horse’s regime incorporates plenty of cross-training, including galloping, hacking, and turnout, with just three arena schooling sessions a week. LaPlaca himself also cross-trains: he has driven—and won—at FEI level.

Surreal

“It’s all surreal,” admitted LaPlaca, who scored an 8.5 for his final passage on the centerline. “My original long-term goal was to bring a young horse up through to the international rings, so the first CDI was already a win, whether I won or not. This is the icing on the cake—especially given that there’s so much to improve and it’s just the beginning.

“Gold Play is a very high-powered horse with a lot of energy, and we work a lot on decaffeinating him and trying to keep it all harmonious and easy,” continued LaPlaca, who trains with Albrecht Heidemann and, more recently, U.S. dressage Chef d’Equipe Christine Traurig. “The training process has been very diverse. He doesn’t know that he’s fancy, so he lives like a normal horse. When he was younger, I did my homework and took him everywhere. If the trailer was leaving the farm, he was on it, so he got used to the world.

Lot of Horse

“He’s a lot of horse, so you’ve got to work with him, not against him,” he added. “I’m just taking one step at a time, but I really would like to do him justice and the sky’s the limit. The horse is sick talent naturally—I’m just the monkey up top trying to figure out how to ride it.”

For now, driving is taking a back seat for LaPlaca while he focuses on CDIs with Gold Play, but he has some youngsters waiting in the wings back in Connecticut. Gold Play will now contest the CDI3* Grand Prix Special on Saturday, February 21.

Click for full results from The Dutta Corp. CDI3* Grand Prix.

The rich seam of personal bests ran throughout the day, with the Chinese rider Zhanzhao Gu also producing one from first draw to head up the morning’s Zen Elite Equestrian CDI1* Prix St. Georges. He scored 67.206% on Xiao Weilin’s 16-year-old Sancisco gelding, Shakespeare 82, who was ridden by Christoph Koschel in young horse classes before Gu resumed the horse’s CDI career at small tour in early 2025.

Click here for full results from the Zen Elite Equestrian CDI1* Prix St. Georges.

Dressage competition during AGDF 7 resumes on Friday, February 20, with daytime classes including the Lövsta Future Challenge, a series for developing grand prix horses, as well as the special “Friday Night Stars” evening featuring the Zen Elite Equestrian FEI Dressage World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle, which is a sold out ticketed event with a surprise musical performance from Grammy Award-winning artists and a stallion showcase.

AGDF 7 runs through Sunday, February 22. AGDF hosts seven weeks of international competition and weekly national shows over three months, finishing March 29. For more information, visit https://www.wellingtoninternational.com or watch all the action in the main arena on the live stream, which can be found here.