Viva Las Victory for Sophie Hinners on Final Day of Longines League of Nations™ Ocala at World Equestrian Center – Ocala
Victory on the final day of the Longines League of Nations™ Ocala CSIO5*-LLN belonged to young German talent Sophie Hinners and Viva Las Vegas W. The pair topped a starting field of 40 entries to win the $85,000 The Dutta Corp. Grand Prix CSI2* on Sunday, March 23, at World Equestrian Center – Ocala (WEC) in Ocala, FL.
The final day of competition saw an interesting mix of veteran campaigners and young up-and-comers take on the 1.45m course set by Irish course designer Alan Wade. A total of seven athletes representing six different nations posted a clear first-round effort to qualify for the jump-off.
The first double clear was posted by Charlie Jones (GBR) riding Montserrat OS, a 10-year-old Anglo European gelding (Care For x Del Piero P B) owned by the Chad family’s Stone Ridge Farms LLC. The pair was efficient in a time of 37.56 seconds but were quickly overtaken by the next rider to enter the WEC Grand Arena, Kara Chad (CAN). Also riding for Stone Ridge Farms LLC, Chad shaved a full second off the time set by Jones. She stopped the clock in 36.57 seconds aboard Corinna Z, a nine-year-old Belgian-bred mare (Cornet Obolensky x Kannan).
Chad was followed in the order by Sophie Hinners (GER) and the lead changed hands once again when the 27-year-old guided Viva Las Vegas W to a clear round in 35.23 seconds. None who followed were able to jump clear, with past Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) being the fastest of the four-fault rounds to place fourth riding Ester de Maugre while world number one Henrik von Eckermann (SWE) took fifth with Steely Dan.
“The jump-off was really cool with her; she’s really thinking with me,” said Hinners of the nine-year-old Holsteiner mare (Vagabond de la Pomme x Cancara) owned by Matthias Wittke. “We have had Viva Las Vegas since she was five years old. I started to ride her when she was seven, so I have already had a long partnership with her. She has a beautiful character, and she has such good rideability. Since she was five, she was always very well balanced and beautiful to ride. She always gave a good jump. She’s one of the very easy horses that always does a lovely job in the ring, and we are totally happy to have her in the stable.”
