Wellington, FL – January 16, 2013 – The second week of competition at the 2013 FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (FTI WEF) kicked off on Wednesday, January 16, with a win for Conor Swail (IRL) and Carlotta Singular in the $8,000 G&C Farm 1.45m Jumpers at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
The second week of FTI WEF competition, sponsored by Wellington Equestrian Realty, will run January 16-20. Highlight events include the $33,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 2 on Thursday afternoon, the $50,000 Wellington Equestrian Realty CSI2* Grand Prix on Saturday evening, and the $25,000 Suncast® 1.50m Championship Jumper Series Classic on Sunday afternoon. The 2013 FTI WEF runs through March 31 featuring 12 weeks of world-class competition.
Luc Musette of Belgium is the course designer in the International Arena for week two jumper competition. In the first class of the week, 24 entries showed in the $8,000 G&C Farm 1.45m speed class. Only six entries were able to clear the course without fault, and the fastest clear round belonged to Ireland’s Conor Swail and his mount Carlotta Singular, owned by Susan Grange. The pair was first to go in the class and set an unbeatable pace at 61.578 seconds.
Ramiro Quintana finished second in 63.718 seconds riding Largo, owned by Maverick Ventures, LLC. Darragh Kenny placed third in 65.161 seconds riding Delilah, owned by Derbypie. Conor Swail also took fourth place honors with his time of 65.683 seconds aboard Cloverleaf Farm’s Vancouver D.M.L.
Conor Swail and Carlotta Singular. Photo © Sportfot.
Carlotta Singular, an eleven-year-old Hanoverian mare by Chasseur x Singular Joter, is a brand new ride for Swail. The mare showed successfully under Canadian rider Yann Candele for several years and now seems to be off to a good start with her new partner.
Swail stated, “I just started riding her ten days ago. She is a very nice jumper with a lot of experience. She is fun to ride.”
Commenting on his round today, Swail noted, “Today was good. I was first to go and her own natural way is quick. She likes running along and being fast anyway, so just doing the turns and floating along, it suits her actually. It was a nice round; I was very pleased with how she jumped.”
Going first, Swail’s plan was just to be neat and tidy around the course. “I wanted to get a nice result. There was still a good bit left, but like I said, she is naturally fast, so it makes it a lot easier just to be neat and tidy. The course was good. It was big enough I thought. It was flowing and he gave you a few options. It was nice.”
Swail will ride Carlotta for the rest of the circuit. He plans to show the mare in the $33,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 2 tomorrow afternoon and will then show in the $50,000 Wellington Equestrian Realty CSI2* Grand Prix on Saturday evening.
“My plan is for her to do the bigger classes,” Swail stated. “I am just getting used to her a little bit now and trying to figure her out and see what she does well.”
Conor Swail with ringmaster Cliff Haines and Luis Miguel Martinez of G&C Farm. Photo © Sportfot.
Swail has several nice mounts for this year’s circuit and looks forward to having more success as the weeks continue.
“I have started to ride Sue Grange’s horses now and she has a lot of nice horses,” he detailed. “It is a nice opportunity for me to have a good season here. Carlotta will be the main one and also Landsdowne; he is a nice stallion. Those too I will do mainly for the big classes. There are also a few other very nice ones to do the other classes.”
The $6,000 Spy Coast Farm 1.40m jump-off and speed classes were also held in the International Arena on Wednesday with two more wins for the Irish. In the jump-off class, Shane Sweetnam and Spy Coast Farm, LLC’s Amaretto D’Arco were victorious. In a class of 94 competitors, 22 entries made it to the jump-off round and 12 jumped double clear. Sweetnam and Amaretto D’Arco won it in a time of 31.438 seconds. Pablo Barrios and ZL Group’s Zara Leandra were just fractions behind in 31.502 seconds to finish in second.
In the speed class, Darragh Kenny guided Cavallo Farms’ Gucci to victory with the fastest clear round out of 54 competitors in 64.462 seconds. Matt Williams and North Star’s Cyrina Z finished second in 68.330 seconds.
Week two will continue on Thursday with the $33,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 2 as the highlight class in the International Arena at 1 p.m. For full results, please visit www.showgroundslive.com.
Final Results: $8,000 G&C Farm 1.45m
1. CARLOTTA SINGULAR CONOR SWAIL SUSAN GRANGE: 0/61.578
2. LARGO RAMIRO QUINTANA MAVERICK VENTURES, LLC: 0/63.718
3. DELILAH DARRAGH KENNY DERBYPIE: 0/65.161
4. VANCOUVER D.M.L. CONOR SWAIL CLOVERLEAF FARM: 0/65.683
5. WOTSAMILLION LAURA KRAUT STONE HILL FARM: 0/69.268
6. NOUVELLE LAURA KRAUT EVITA GROUP: 0/70.977
7. MERLIN JEFFERY WELLES NOEL GROSS: 4/63.616
8. JUBILEE D’OUILLY LAURA KRAUT A. LEBON: 4/64.749
9. COLGATE PABLO BARRIOS PABLO BARRIOS: 4/65.435
10. DIXSON IAN MILLAR ARIEL AND SUSAN GRANGE: 4/66.882
11. AMOR VAN DE ROSTAL MAC CONE CHADBURN HOLDINGS, INC: 4/69.288
12. SEVENTH FEE MICHAEL DORMAN WYNDMONT: 4/71.044
Photo Credit: Photos © Sportfot, An Official Photographer of the FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival, us.sportfot.com. This photo may be used only in relation to this press release and must include photo credit.