Riesa Lakin, Head of Partnerships and Events for Corro, and Jackie Poole, Site Merchandising Assistant for Corro, stand with Darragh Kerins and Valentino Tuiliere in their winning presentation. Photo © Sportfot.
Press release from Equestrian Sport Productions
International competition leading up to Saturday night’s event consisted of the $50,000 Corro Grand Prix CSI2*. Darragh Kerins (IRL) headed up the victory gallop as he ultimately took the win with Eve Jobs’s 13-year-old Selle Francais gelding Valentino Tuiliere (Diamant De Semilly x Silvio).
Forty-six pairings representative of 10 individual nations navigated through Wade’s two-star track. Nine entries were able to produce a clear first round to qualify for the shortened track, and nine fell victim to the penalty of a downed rail. The time allowed knocked three more riders out of contention. Rebecca Conway (USA) led the way as the first to return but put four faults on the board. Ireland’s Cian O’Connor followed and produced the first double-clear effort aboard Taj Mahal. The challengers got quicker as the class went on, but Kerins was the only one of the contenders to stop the clock under 41 seconds to hold on to the lead.
Darragh Kerins and Valentino Tuiliere. Photo © Sportfot.
“I’ve only been riding him since the beginning of this circuit,” explained Kerins. “Eve [Jobs] has done a lot of successful things with him, and she is coming in the next couple weeks, so I have just been keeping him going.”
The win was extra sweet for Kerins who says he has been knocking on the door of a top finish for several weeks.
“I jumped him in a two-star grand prix a couple of weeks ago, and he was very good but just had one down,” he added. “I was really disappointed because I haven’t gotten into a jump-off with him before. Today when we went clear I decided I was really going to give it my best shot.”
Carly Anthony (USA) and Jet Blue, who were the winners of Thursday’s $37,000 Corro 1.45m Grand Prix Qualifier CSI2* class, once again produced a top performance. She and the Portfolio Horses LLC’s 11-year-old KWPN gelding (VDL Zirocco Blue) clocked in at 41.13 seconds which put them just slightly above Kerins’s winning time. Fellow American Chloe Reid rode the third-best round of the jump-off. Reid piloted Crossover 4, a nine-year-old Hanoverian stallion (Cascadello x Chacco-Blue) owned by Team Reid LLC, through a clear round with a time of 41.42 seconds.
Final Results: $50,000 Corro Grand Prix CSI2*
1. VALENTINO TUILIERE: 2009 Selle Francais gelding by Diamant De Semilly x Silvio
DARRAGH KERINS (IRL), Eve Jobs: 0/0/40.78
2. JET BLUE: 2011 KWPN gelding by VDL Zirocco Blue
CARLY ANTHONY (USA), Portfolio Horses LLC: 0/0/41.13
3. CROSSOVER 4: 2013 Hanoverian stallion by Cascadello x Chacco-Blue
CHLOE REID (USA), Team Reid LLC: 0/0/41.42
4. MAESTRO VAN HET BINNENVELD: 2012 BWP stallion by Hunter’s Scendix x Conan Z
WESLEY NEWLANDS (CAN), Weslands Farms: 0/0/42.74
5. TAJ MAHAL: 2013 Zangersheide stallion by Emerald Van’t Ruytershof x Quannan R
CIAN O’CONNOR (IRL), Coolmore Show Jumping: 0/0/43.31
6. FAIR FIELD: 2010 KWPN gelding by VDL Zirocco Blue x Chin Chin
KATHERINE STRAUSS (USA), Katherine Strauss LLC: 0/0/44.29
7. PRIMO TROY: 2009 Irish Sport Horse gelding by Clinton x VDL Arkansas
CATHERINE TYREE (USA), Itasca Group LLC: 0/4/42.89
8. CON COLEUR: 2009 Hanoverian gelding by Contendro I x Couleur Rubin
REBECCA CONWAY (USA), Blue Hill Farm, LLC: 0/4/43.32
9. WONDER IF: 2012 mare by Cevin Z x Bolivar
AMANDA DERBYSHIRE (GBR), Gochman Ventures LLC: 0/4/44.98
10. VOODOO 10: 2010 Hanoverian gelding by Valentino 240
JOHN PEREZ BOHM (COL), Julio David Vainer: 1/75.40
11. EDOCENTA: 2012 OS mare by Eldorado VD Zeshoek x Dobel’s Cento
CHARLOTTE JACOBS (USA), North Star: 1/75.57
12. HOLLYWOOD DE RASE Z: 2012 Zangersheide gelding by Hoegle Van’t Bergske x Triomphe De Muze
ANGELA COVERT (CAN), Angela Covert: 3/77.08
Then