It was a home win for the USA in the feature class of the day at the Longines Global Champions Tour held at Miami Beach, the Artisan Farms Trophy. Hardin Towell and Cadence (Cardento x Irco Marco), owned by Jennifer Gates, were just too fast for the rest of the combinations who took to the testing Uliano Vezzani course - the pair stopped the clock at a lightening 37.15s, 2nd place went to Steve Guerdat and Concetto Son (Concetto x Drosseklklang II) in 38.25s and 3rd to Maikel van der Vleuten and VDL Groep Arera C (Indoctro x Voltaire) in 38.71s. The American really showed just how fast he could be to beat two of the quickest European riders on the circuit!
The first round of the class was a deceptively testing course with no real bogey fences, though a smattering of tricky rails caught out many. Of the 56 starters, 13 jumped clear in the stunning arena, watched closely by the crowds drawn to the to see these fantastic riders in action. The jump-off course offered some daring turn-backs and risky gallops but Hardin never faltered, taking a commanding win. With tomorrow's American Invitational and Saturday's Longines Global Champions Tour of Miami Beach Grand Prix still to come, the home team are on flying form and we could well see another big U.S. victory over the coming days.
Carlos Lopez and Zephyr II (Tolano van 't Riethof x Goodtimes) claimed a fast and furious opening victory in the 1.45 class. Second place went to two-time LGCT Champ Edwina Tops-Alexander and Questina (Quidam's Rubin) who stopped the clock just under 1.5s behind Lopez. Third went to world no.15 Gregory Wathelet and Egano van het Slogenhof (Electro x Nagano) who finished a nail-biting 0.06s behind Tops-Alexander.