Week 5 of the 12-week 2019 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) circuit concluded on Sunday, February 10, at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, FL. Kristen Vanderveen (USA) and Bull Run’s Prince of Peace were victorious in the $72,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic, marking Vanderveen’s fourth FEI victory in WEF 5. Catherine Tyree (USA) and BEC Lorenzo took the win in the $50,000 Rushy Marsh Farm Grand Prix CSI2*.

WEF continues on Wednesday, February 13, through February 17 with week 6 competition featuring the $134,000 CabanaCoast Grand Prix CSI 3* in the Global International Arena at Equestrian Village on Friday, February 15, at 7 p.m. and the $100,000 USHJA/WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular on Saturday, February 16, at 6:30 p.m. as part of the “Saturday Night Lights” series.

There were 47 entries in the $72,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic on Sunday morning, all attempting to have a clear round to advance to the jump-off. Only nine were able to find that clear path and returned to contest the shortened course designed by Kelvin Bywater of Great Britain.

Riding out of the fourth spot in the order, Vanderveen and Bull Run’s Prince of Peace were able to speed around the jump-off clear in 39.42 seconds for the win. Second place went to Darragh Kenny (IRL) on Kerry Anne LLC’s Important de Muze, who stopped the timers in 40.28 seconds. Shane Sweetnam (IRL) and Alejandro, owned by Sweet Oak, Spy Coast, Seabrook LLC, placed third in 40.58 seconds.

This was Vanderveen’s fourth FEI class victory at WEF 5. She and Bull Run’s Almighty won the Douglas Elliman Real Estate 1.45m on Wednesday and she picked up the win with Prince of Peace in the opening day 1.40m class. On Friday, she and Bull Run’s Faustino de Tili won the Bainbridge 1.45m Classic.

“I don’t think I’ve had a week like this before,” Vanderveen noted. “I’m trying to recall if I’ve ever won even two ranking classes in a week. It was nice to see all of the horses were peaking this week. It was great that the plan worked.”

Vanderveen noted that Prince of Peace is a “naturally fast horse and very careful,” which helped in this jump-off. She explained, “There were a lot of tight rollbacks to the verticals and [it was] quite a careful jump-off while being fast. I figured to push him a bit and see where we’re at. In the turns, I was able to keep everything pretty tight. There weren’t a lot of places to leave out strides. He’s brilliant about staying careful off the jumps so I can kind of just keep kicking and he backs right off.”

Bull Run’s Prince of Peace, a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding by Cardenio x Contender, is a horse in Vanderveen’s string that she has been developing for two years.

“For sure this is the biggest track that I’ve done with him now,” she said. “I was quite excited just to get to show him over some bigger jumps and see how he handled it. After the first round, it felt so comfortable to me, I was going to give it a go in the jump-off. I have high hopes that he’ll turn into one of my big-time horses.”