21-01-2010
Pablo Barrios repeated his success from last week with another opening day win at the 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival. He and G&C Sinatra, owned by Barrios as well as Gustavo and Carolina Mirabal of G&C Farm in Wellington, FL, were the fastest to win the $8,000 Sentient Jet 1.45m class.
This week's courses in the International Arena are designed by Steve Stephens of Palmetto, FL. In the opening class, the $8,000 Sentient Jet 1.45m Time First Round, 29 entries went to post. There were 17 clear rounds, and the fastest of those was Barrios (VEN) on G&C Sinatra, who crossed the timers in 55.151 seconds. The early leader was McLain Ward on Miss Liberty 7, owned by Overlook Farm, who finished second in a time of 56.285 seconds. Angela Covert-Lawrence and Unica Van De Roshoeve, owned by Eastwood Group, were also quick and clear in 56.369 seconds to finish in third place.
Barrios won on the first day last week as well, and he is happy to be continuing this string of victories. Barrios and G&C Sinatra have had a two year partnership, including competing at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong. Barrios believes that Sinatra has matured, especially after his experience at the Olympics. "He's been better every time after the Olympics," Barrios noted. "When he did the Olympics, he was too young. Now he's more mature and doing very good."
The 11-year-old KWPN gelding by Epilot has been a consistent performer for Barrios, and is now co-owned by Barrios' sponsor, G&C Farm.
For today's class, Barrios stuck with his original course plan. "I knew I could do the six (strides) in the first line. He's a big-strided horse. He's a big horse (too), but he's very good at tight turns. I was able to do the five (strides) in the last line, and I didn't see many horses doing that," Barrios explained. "He had a very good turn back after the double. He's very scopey, so I don't need too much room to approach the fences, so that helped there."
Source: (ESP)