SAUGERTIES,N.Y.--Kent Farrington on Orafina won the $65,000 CSI3* Welcome. HITS Hudson Valley VIII, also referred to as Championship Week, on Thursday, Sept. 4.

Kent Farrington on Orafina (Photo by EDL Photograpjy)Alan Wade of Ireland set the course for the 38 entries.

Second in the ring, Michael Walton on Blues had the first clear round immediately followed by Wednesday’s $31,020 CSI3* Jumper Classic winner Nayel Nassar of Egypt on IIgor van de Wittemoere , also clean.

Then world number one, Kent Farrington on Kanny-Fee was clean followed by 16 others followed, for a jump-off of 19.

“This is a three-star show, but the list of riders is very strong,” said Farrington, who leads the world ranking for the fifth consecutive month. “We have one of the best course designers in the world this week in Alan Wade, so I think the course was very good. It can sometimes happen that you have more in the jump-off when you’re setting a qualifier event to try to get everybody going for the week. We’re riding young horses, some of us, and it’s a very mixed group of very experienced older horses and some younger ones coming up. You end up with a difficult class to build, which can happen, but there’s also an impressive caliber of riders we have in the Northeast staying in America to do these shows.”

 

AFTER FARRINGTON withdrew Kanny-Fee in the jump-off, saving her for another day, it was the third to go in the jump-off, Olympian Daniel Bluman of israel on Landon de Nyze who had the first clear round in 41.79 seconds.

The lead quickly changed hands as just a couple of rounds later, Michael Duffy of Ireland shaved the leading time down to 40.01 seconds on Chili Pepper H M Z.

Then it was Samuel Hutton  of Great Britain who took over the lead on Etincelle d’Ellipse, clean in 39.40 seconds.

That held up until Bluman reclaimed the lead on his second ride, Kapitaal L,.

But it was the penultimate rider, Farrington on his second ride Orafina, who raced to the fastest time of 37.86 seconds.

Last to go, Brian Moggre on MTM Vivre le Reve was clean in 39.07 seconds to place third, with Bluman second and Farrington notching yet another victory.

“My favorite thing about Orafina is her competitive nature,” said Farrington. “She’s just a winner. She was a winner right from the beginning, and she continues to be a winner throughout her career at almost every level. She can win a great speed class; she has won five-star grand prix classes; she has been a great horse and continues to be one."

“I watched a few go,” Farrington said. “With this horse in particular, she really has her speed and her round to go, and it’s just a matter of how much you’re going to push it. Her normal fast round is already very, very fast, and today that was good enough.”