Paul O’Shea and Imerald Van’t Voorhof Top $215,000 MARS Equestrian CSI4* Grand Prix
The Irish flag flew for Paul O’Shea and Imerald van’t Voorhof after they won the $215,000 MARS Equestrian CSI4* Grand Prix on the grass derby field at Equestrain Village Saturday afternoon during Week 4 of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). WEF hosts 12 weeks of FEI competition at Wellington International and runs through March 31.
Perfect conditions, but a testing track from Anderson Lima (BRA), welcomed only three riders to the tie-breaking jump-off. It took sixteen to try and come up short before David O’Brien (IRL) cracked the code on Lima’s first-round course. Three trips later, O’Shea guaranteed a battle between countrymen before up-and-coming U.S. rider Mimi Gochman joined the trio.
“I was lucky to be able to see David [O’Brien] go, and in the first line he did eight but I could see there was a seven there,” said O’Shea. “When David had one down, it made sense to go quite fast because even if I had one down but was quicker than him I could still be second, and also put pressure on Mimi [Gochman]. It worked out for us.”
Of the challenge course, O’Shea noted, “It was a long way around, and on the last line up the hill, maybe some of the horses were a bit tired by then.”
Returning for the jump-off, O’Brien and El Balou OLD, a 12-year-old Oldenburg stallion (Eldorado vd Zeshoek x Balou du Rouet) owned by Chansonette and Leap Year Farms, pulled a rail to finish third. Nineteen-year-old Gochman ended on a double-clear day aboard 14-year-old Holsteiner mare Celina BH (Canstakko x Carthago Z), but coludn’t catch O’Shea to finish second for owner Gochman Sport Horses.
O’Shea bested Gochman with just over a second to spare in 39.63 seconds thanks to the ground-covering pace of Imerald van’t Voorhof, a 16-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Emerald x Bacardi Orange de Muze) owned together with Emerald Partners and Equestrian Farms.
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