Press release from HITS, edited by World of Showjumping 

The final day of international show jumping on Saturday, September 6, 2025, during HITS Hudson Valley VIII at HITS Hudson Valley in Saugerties, New York (USA), put the exclamation mark on a standout season with the $125,000 Core Specialty Insurance CSI3* Grand Prix. The highlight event was part of the positively stacked Championship Week at the world-class venue, boasting an FEI CSI3* division as well as a World Champion Hunter Rider (WCHR) designation. With exhibitors and spectators gathered around the Douglas Elliman Grand Prix Stadium, it was once again the world number one, Kent Farrington (USA), and Grass de Mars that claimed the blue-ribbon honors to lead the victory gallop.

Alan Wade’s (IRL) Grand Prix track gave a full tour of the arena for the 35 horse-and-rider combinations on the start list, including a tricky vertical-oxer-vertical triple combination and a triple bar five-stride line to a delicate vertical. It took 10 rounds until Daniel Bluman (ISR) delivered the first clear performance with Kapitaal L, a 10-year-old KWPN mare (Cornet Obolensky x Comme D Api vd Hacienda) he owns with Over the Top Stables LLC. He was then joined by Farrington with Grass de Mars, Nayel Nassar (EGY) with Ivory TCS (Falaise de Muze x Ukato), Luis Larrazabal (VEN) with Jon Snow (Vingino x Eldorado Vd Zeshoek), and Philip McGuane (IRL) with Orphea HQ (Emerald x Epleaser Van't Heike) to make five for the jump-off. 

“You’ve got a top course builder today in Alan Wade, so the course sort of separated the field,” explained Farrington. “In the Welcome on Thursday, he had many clear rounds, so today he knew that even though this is a three-star, the caliber of horses and riders that are here is very strong. He built a proper course, and there were not so many clear. That’s usually the sign of a well built course is that the entire course can have faults all over the place with different strengths and weaknesses depending on the horse.”

Across the short course, Bluman once again executed another smooth clear effort in 41.88 seconds. Then, Farrington stepped on the gas and crossed through the timers in 39.14 seconds to take over the top spot. Nassar and Larrazabal followed, each suffering unfortunate rails as they risked for reward, leaving Farrington in the lead. Last to go, McGuane and Orphea HQ, the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood owned by Evergate Stables, chased the time to beat but came up just fractions of a second off the pace, stopping the clock in 39.20 seconds. In the end, the day belonged to Farrington, while McGuane finished in the runner-up spot and Bluman completed the top three.

“She’s very fast; she wins a lot,” said Farrington of the nine-year-old Selle Français mare (Cornet Obolensky x Dollar dela Pierre) owned by Kent Farrington LLC and Robinson Ridge LLC. “She’s different than my other horses, though. She’s got an attitude like a big puppy dog. She’s very friendly, very easy to manage. She’s not spooky or super high strung. She’s pretty chilled out. She knows her job in the ring, and she’s super pro. I’ve got great support behind me from a number of different people, including Katie Robinson, who owns ‘Grass’ with me, and we’ve had a lot of fun with her and are looking forward to the future."

“I think you’ve seen a lot of sponsors and a lot of top riders come back here, and it continues to grow, so I think it’s only going to keep getting better,” he continued of the impressive HITS Hudson Valley experience. “I also just want to say a special ‘Thank you’ to Core Specialty Insurance for sponsoring this class and being a part of our sport here in the Northeast.”