Gabriel Matos Machado and Livingstone van het Peggershof Strike First in the $31,020 FEI CSI3* Jumper Classic During HITS Hudson Valley IV
HITS Hudson Valley IV kicked off the popular Hudson Valley Jumping Tour® on July 16, 2025. Part of the HITS Hudson Valley Show Series at the world-class venue in Saugerties, New York, the three-week-long tour showcases top equestrian sport, including international CSI3* competition, as well as a World Champion Hunter Rider (WCHR) week. With all arenas bustling on the first day of action, it was Gabriel Matos Machado (BRA) who closed out competition in the Douglas Elliman Grand Prix Stadium with the win in the $31,020 FEI CSI3* Jumper Classic riding Livingstone van het Peggershof.
In a star-studded starting field of 42 horse-and-rider combinations, eight countries were represented, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, and of course, the home nation of the United States. Mark McGowan (GBR) designed the opening power-and-speed track set at 1.45m, setting the tone for the exciting week.
Laura Chapot (USA) posted the first double-clear performance with Ginola, leaving the rest of the athletes to chase her time of 35.88 seconds. Just before the midway drag, Alessandra Volpi (USA) managed to bring the leading time down to 34.74 seconds with Glamour, a 14-year-old KWPN mare (Numero Uno x Iroko) owned by Cedar Fox LLC. Aboard her second mount, Jolie van Schuttershof, Chapot almost caught Volpi, but stopped the clock in 35.26 seconds to sit just behind her. It was with her third ride, C&C Willow, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare by Emerald owned by Mary Chapot, that Laura Chapot looked like she had closed the door on the competition, as she shaved two hundredths of a second off of Volpi’s time in 34.72 seconds. That seemed unbeatable until, fortieth in the order, Matos Machado and Livingstone van het Peggershof, laid it all on the line to break the beam in 34.60 seconds and claim the win. Laura Chapot and C&C Willow settled for the runner-up spot, while Volpi and Glamour finished in third.
“For the first day, the course designer did a great job; all of the horses jumped very well, so that’s a good thing,” noted Matos Machado. “It was a very nice and pretty straight forward course, not too many options. The first turn in the speed portion was important. You really had to get a big jump at that second fence so you could land on the inside track to come to the combination that followed. My horse turned very well in that left turn, and he landed very forward because he has a huge stride. I think that’s where I got the time.”
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