The newly minted North American League Longines FEI World Cup qualifying season continues in 2016 in Mexico. With ten events complete, four remain before the Finals this March in Gothenburg. The first of those four is also the first ever FEI World Cup Qualifying event produced in Mexico; Valle de Bravo CSI4*.
Under sunny skies, Wednesday's Welcome FEI classes set the stage for a fantastic week. Course designer Guilherme Jorge of Brazil designed the tracks for a 1.35m class with 72 competitors and for a 1.45m speed class with 43 competitors.
Antomio Maurer of Mexico dominated the 1.35m class, earning 1st, 3rd and 4th in the class aboard Las Palmas Z , Galileo de Laubry and Magnus Jaen Mail respectively. Sneaking into second place was Danish rider Nicolaj Hein Ruus riding Zinancantan.
Brazil's Rodrigo Lambre rode the 10 year old Argentine mare Charielle (owned by Mario Onate B) to the the top of the FEI 1.45m Welcome Speed Stake. His time of 63.04 was over a second faster than second place finisher Gonzalo Azcarraga of Mexico riding his twelve-year-old KWPN stallion Zalernno, who stopped the clock in 64.79. Patricio Pasquel and Carnaval were third, with American Karl Cook aboard Signe Ostby's Basimodo rounding out the top four.
Source: Press release from CSI4*-W Valle de Bravo // Picture © Anwar Esquivel.