Kent Farrington and Willow (Sportfot)
Alan Wade (IRL) finished the week with another strong track for the horses and riders in the 1.50m competition, with 64 entries and nine clear rounds. A tight 73-second time allowed kept nine others out of the jump off, clear over the jumps but late across the finish line.
In the tiebreaker, three cleared the short course without fault. Lauren Hough (USA) and Paris Sellon's Adare finished second with their time of 35.21 seconds. Darragh Kenny (IRL) placed third in 35.71 seconds with Hyperion Stud LLC's Chin Quidam VDL, and Farrington topped the pack in 34.87 seconds aboard Amalaya Investments' Willow.
Farrington qualified two mounts for the jump-off. He jumped first with Amalaya Investments' Waomi, who he rode to victory in week seven's 1.50m classic. The pair was fast, but had two rails down in the process and finished eighth. This time it was Willow's turn in the winner's circle, and the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Guidam x Little Rock) blazed through the track.
"I just used the length of his stride to my advantage," Farrington said of his winning round. "I probably do less strides than the other horses do. Certainly to the combination I left out one stride. That is a pretty risky thing to do, but he has such a big stride that I figured my chances of clearing it were probably the same whether I did seven or eight. Then I probably did one less stride to the next one and one less stride to the last as well. Naturally, he has a very big step, so it is easy to use that in a jump-off."
"Waomi has been a consistent player for me at that level," Farrington noted. "Willow, I have been using in some bigger classes that are probably a touch over his head this winter, trying to rest Voyeur and my other bigger horses. I put him back at his comfort level and he showed why he is good for that, so I am very happy with him today."
"He has a fantastic gallop," the rider detailed. "He is really game; he is brave. He is a lot of fun to ride and he is naturally very fast, so you just have to try to contain him throughout the course and usually he produces good results."
Speaking of his plans for Willow this year, Farrington, explained, "I would like to use him as a top second horse. I think that is really his role. He can compete anywhere in the world, and he has such a great heart. If you ask him to jump a big one, he will do it. He almost won the 5* here, the first one around. He had the last fence down in the jump-off, but I thought he tried his guts out. He will kind of do whatever you want, but I think his most competitive level is as a second horse. I think he can win a ton."
Concluding another great week of competition, Farrington praised course designer Alan Wade on his tracks for the week.
"I think Alan Wade is one of the best course designers in modern show jumping," Farrington acknowledged. "I think we all appreciate that he is here to build. It is real level, but it is intelligent building and I think the courses all week have been great."