Kent Farrington and Voyeur victorious in Longines FEI World Cup Lexington
Top athletes need that special horse to help them stay at the pinnacle of the sport, and Kent Farrington found that mount in the very quirky Voyeur. Farrington has worked hard to develop all of Voyeur's qualities that make him special and turn him into a winner. Sunday afternoon at the CP National Horse Show, they once again proved why they are ranked as one of the best pairs in the world when they bested a 13-horse jump-off to win the $250,000 Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Lexington, presented by CP.
“Voyeur is very fresh; he's an aggressive horse,” said Farrington after his win. “He has a lot of blood all the time. You usually have to be a little bit awake when you're riding him because he can spin very quickly and spooks at a lot of things. He's a handful, but I think most of the good ones are.”
Farrington continued, “I think that today's modern show jumper is a really versatile horse that's really rideable and fast. Scopey and careful – that's what we're all looking for. I think the most experienced horses that are successful in this sport can usually do both. I actually think he is better outside than indoors, but this indoor is quite big, which is why I thought it would suit him to bring him here.”
Thirty-six entries gathered at the Kentucky Horse Park to participate in the highlight event of the competition and vie for valuable points to qualify for the 2016 Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final in Gothenburg, Sweden. One of seven events in the new FEI World Cup™ Jumping East Coast League, the top athletes in the world competed over Guilherme Jorge's first round track in the hopes of qualifying for the jump-off. Thirteen managed to do so, and 11 were also clear over the short track, making speed a key factor in the day's results.
“I thought the course today was a big track, but obviously not that big because they jumped it really well,” Jorge said. “I think for the class today, if I had to look back and see, I could have made the time allowed a little shorter. At this level it's a very fine line, and I think the riders today jumped it great and that's the reason we had 13 clears for the jump-off.”
Six of the top seven finishers completed the course within just one-tenth of a second of one another, with Farrington being the only rider to finish under 34 seconds. Ireland's Conor Swail and Ilan Ferder's Viva Colombia were the slowest to finish under 35 seconds, breaking the beam at 34.76 seconds with all the rails intact for seventh place. The sixth place award went to Belgium's Jos Verlooy and Sunshine, owned by Axel Verlooy and Eurohorse BVBA, for their clear round in 34.36 seconds. Hardin Towell and Jennifer Gates' Emilie de Diamant AS just narrowly slipped ahead of them for fifth place in 34.32 seconds.
Beezie Madden and Abigail Wexner's Breitling LS set the pace to beat early in the tiebreaker when they crossed the finish line in 34.26 seconds.
Despite his mount being blind in one eye, Belgium's Olivier Philippaerts had one of the fastest rounds of the day on H&M Challenge VD Begijnakker Z, owned by Bart Keisse. He finished in 34.07 seconds for third place, just two-hundredths of a second behind Laura Kraut.