Kent Farrington and Zafira win Spruce Meadows G & C Cup

The ‘Pan American’ Tournament at Spruce Meadows kicked off on Thursday with featured competition including a win for French rider Adam Prudent and Vasco in the $6,000 Shell Energy Cup 1.45m as well as a victory for USA’s Kent Farrington and Zafira in the $35,000 G&C Farm Cup 1.50m.

The ‘Pan American’ Tournament runs July 11-14, 2013, featuring CSI 5* competition and $625,000 in total prize money. The week will continue with the $15,000 CIBC Cup and $33,000 Friends of the Meadows Cup on Friday, the $40,000 Friends of the Meadows Cup and $33,000 ASHCOR Technologies Cup on Saturday, and the highlight event, the $400,000 PAN AMERICAN Cup presented by ROLEX, to wrap up competition on Sunday.

The $35,000 G&C Farm Cup was the highlight competition on Thursday with 62 entries jumping a challenging course set by Peter Grant of Vancouver, BC. Jumping in the beautiful Meadows on the Green, nine entries went clear to advance to the jump-off and just three were able to clear the short course without fault.

First in the order of go and therefore first to return for the jump-off, Kent Farrington and Haity McNerney’s Zafira set the pace with what would prove to be the winning clear round in 37.88 seconds.

Canada’s Tiffany Foster and Victor, owned by Torrey Pines and Artisan Farms LLC, finished second with a clear jump-off round in 39.61 seconds. Mexico’s Nicolas Pizarro and Polasko placed third with a time of 43.81 seconds. Reed Kessler (USA) qualified two horses for the jump-off, finishing fourth with Ligist with four faults in 37.80 seconds. Kessler was also fifth with Iron Works Partners’ Wolf S with four faults in 42.23 seconds.

Class winner Zafira is a nine-year-old KWPN mare by Nassau x Cappucino van Berkenbroek. Zafira is gaining some valuable experience showing in the big rings at Spruce Meadows this summer and Farrington is very pleased with the mare’s progression.

“Zafira is a green horse to come to Spruce Meadows,” Farrington remarked. “It started out a little hairy. A year ago in the fall she was just doing 1.35m. She was a little behind, so I have come here and just tried to give her really strong miles. I started in the 1.45m and that went a little up and down, but now having been here for a while, she is getting more comfortable and she has steadily been improving.”

“Jumping a division higher in the 1.50m and being able to win is a great last week for the horse,” Farrington smiled. “Today she jumped great. That was her first class this week, so to march right into a big class like that, I was thrilled with her.”
Zafira has made a big step up this year and Farrington hopes to see continued success with the talented mare.

“I think she is just right on track,” he noted. “My goal was to bring her here and to give her lots of mileage and hopefully she stepped up and jumped some good classes and that is exactly what she is doing. I think leaving here she will be a much better horse where she will be comfortable walking into a lot of different venues and jumping some different classes.”

Farrington has a nice string of horses right now and is letting Zafira decide for herself where she will fall in the line-up.

“Like all of them, I get them when they are young and sort of produce them along the way and see how good they want to be,” he explained. “I think she is already a nice grand prix horse. She is only nine years old and where she goes from there I don’t know. The horses will decide if they want to be a superstar or they want to be a good second horse or a grand prix horse or what they want to do, but that is sort of always the unknown. You don’t know until you do it, but so far she is progressing nicely and I am happy with where she is.”

Zafira will show again later this week and then Farrington will make the decision about whether she will go to Europe or continue on to the Hampton Classic Horse Show in New York at the end August.

Final Results: $35,000 G&C Farm Cup 1.50m

1. ZAFIRA: 2004 KWPN mare Nassau x Cappucino van Berkenbroek
KENT FARRINGTON (USA), Haity McNerney: 0/0/37.88

2. VICTOR: 2002 KWPN gelding by Elmshorn x Grandeur
TIFFANY FOSTER (CAN), Torrey Pines & Artisan Farms LLC: 0/0/39.61

3. POLASKO: 2003 Oldenburg gelding by Polytraum x Grannus
NICOLAS PIZARRO (MEX), Nicolas Pizarro: 0/0/43.81

4. LIGIST: 2000 Swedish Warmblood gelding by Levantos II x Robin Z
REED KESSLER (USA), Reed Kessler: 0/4/37.80

5. WOLF S: 2003 KWPN gelding by Numero Uno x Peter Pan
REED KESSLER (USA), Iron Works Partners: 0/4/42.23

6. SANCHA LS LA SILLA: 2003 SLS mare by Chin Chin x Polydor
DANIEL BLUMAN (COL), Daniel Bluman: 0/4/44.99

7. WANNICK WH: 2003 KWPN stallion by Heartbreaker x Joost
CHRISTINE MCCREA (USA), Candy Tribble: 0/8/41.49

8. FARFELU DE LA POMME: 2005 Warmblood mare by Vigo d’Arsouilles x Darco
JOS VERLOOY (BEL), Axel Verlooy: 0/8/43.90

9. CARLOS V.H.P Z: 2002 Zangersheide gelding by Chellano Z x Voltaire
NICHOLAS DELLO JOIO (USA), EM Horses: 0/17/59.95

10. QUILEBO D TILLARD: 2004 Selle Francais gelding by For Pleasure x Quat Sous
ENRIQUE GONZALEZ (MEX), Enrique Gonzalez: 1/76.87

11. VERDI III: 2002 KWPN gelding by Hors la Loi III x Cantus
TIFFANY FOSTER (CAN), Artisan Farms LLC: 1/77.39

12. COLASKO: 2005 Oldenburg stallion by Coleman x Granus
Nicolas Pizarro (MEX) Monica Burrillo Eguia: 1/77.62