Kent Farrington & Sherkan d’Amaury. Ph. ©Equnews
Kent Farrington made his first European show of the season well worth it when he picked up the feature class win on Day 2 of Jumping Antwerp CSI5* in Antwerp, Belgium.
The American rider, who is fresh off winning the Global Champions League CSI5* Final in Miami Beach, Florida, USA, met a separate string of horses in Belgium this week to begin his spring competition season.
He was riding Sherkan d’Amaury, an 11-year-old Selle Francis gelding (Kannan x Quick Star) in the jumpoff competition. Farrington and Sherkan d’Amaury jumped a clear Round 1 along with 13 others of the 40-entry start list.
The day’s feature class was held under lights at Jumping Atwerpen, adding to the atmosphere of this spring show. Not that lights would phase the lineup hailing from seven nations that contested the top prize in this class; while Farrington held a strong lead in 32.91 seconds, Italy’s Piergiorgio Bucci was not so far behind in 33.11 seconds for 2nd place. Penelope Leprevost of France came 3rd in 33.80 seconds aboard Vagabond La Pomme. Romain Duget placed 4th with Tipsy du Terrel and Pieter Devos was the top-placing Belgian rider in 5ht, with Claire S.
The competition was preceded by a win from Belgium’s Jerome Guery in the afternoon’s CSI5* 1.45m competition, giving the home crowd lots to cheer for. Friday’s classes bring the final of the bracketed format Jumping Clash Challenge, and the Grand Prix is to come on the weekend.