Adrienne Sternlicht (USA) and Lafayette Van Overis © Sportfot.
Wellington, FL – March 3, 2021 – As the week eight CSIO4* gets underway at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF), it was Adrienne Sternlicht (USA) and Lafayette Van Overis, owned by Starlight Farms 1, LLC, who scored a victory in the $5,000 Premier Equestrian Welcome Stake CSIO4* daytime class on Wednesday, March 3, at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC).
A total of 65 combinations challenged the 1.40m track set by Steve Stephens (USA) and Nick Granat (USA), which featured 13 jumping efforts in a speed format. Sternlicht and the 10-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding by Kashmir Van Schuttershof x Tauber van het Kapelhof, made swift work of the course, with a double-clear effort in 58.54 seconds. The pair has only been together for five months, but the partnership is progressing well.
“Lafyette is a very competitive horse,” said Sternlicht. “Bertram Allen won a ton on him before, so I think immediately when you have a horse like that, you feel a bit of pressure for it to go well right off the bat. It has been a little bit up and down; he’s quite a different ride. Bertram has quite a different riding style than I do but I have to give credit to him; he has helped me within the past week, and everything seemed very easy today, so I was happy.”
Amy Millar and Christiano Top $5,000 Premier Equestrian Welcome Stake CSIO4* Night Class
A field of 30 top horse-and-rider combinations contested the track set in the International Arena on Wednesday evening in preparation for the upcoming $150,000 Nations Cup. Riders slated to compete in the upcoming event on Friday were given the opportunity to use the $5,000 FEI Premier Equestrian CSIO Welcome stake as an opportunity to guide their mounts around the stadium in a night-class setting. The course designed by Steve Stephens (USA) and Nick Granat (USA) played out as a single round speed class with just less than half of the original entries making it through fault-free.
A number of competitors were seen raising their hand to signal an early retirement as a way of testing their mounts’ comfort level under the lights without over-using them. A handful of others used it as an opportunity to school difficult or unique fences that would likely once again be used in the Nations’ Cup. Great Britain’s Jessica Mendoza held the leading time of 57.89 seconds for a long period of the class until Canada’s Amy Millar and Christiano, owned by Future Adventures, took over the lead.
Millar, the daughter of veteran show jumper Ian Millar, expertly guided the 11-year-old German Sport Horse gelding (Canoso x Compliment) to the top of the podium with an efficient time of 56.78 seconds.
For more information and results, please visit www.PBIEC.com.