Israelies shine at the WEF 2018 in Wellington

The eighth week of the Winter Equestrian Festival, in Wellington, Florida, has dawned. This week the event will include a workshop held by one of the most successful champions of all time, Brit Carl Hester, who will be talking today with three different groups of riders.
The Lunch & Learn Series will be back tomorrow focus on nutrition for active competitive horses: how and when to set up a functional nutritional program made up of quality hay and augmented with electrolytes and amino acids.
The week’s first competitive event will be on Friday, starting with the Grand Prix Hermès U25, the semifinal for the young riders’ circuit, which will show off the up-and-coming American talent, and the Friday Night Stars dressage.
The big event will be Saturday, with the Wellington arena’s Saturday Night Lights welcoming international for the Nations Cup CSIO4* worth a grand total of $150 thousand.
One of the richest weeks in the WEF calendar will end on a high with the CSIO4* Grand Prix worth $205 thousand.
While we eagerly await the upcoming competitions, let’s take a look at the results from the week which has just ended. The seventh week saw Danielle Goldstein claim the title at the Palm Beach Equestrian Center show-jumping Rolex Grand Prix, worth $384 thousand, riding Lizziemary.
The course, designed by Anthony D’Ambrosio, saw 39 pairings compete, with six making it through the selection phase for the jump-off.
Russian rider Liubov Kochetova, riding Veneno (Chacco-Blue), was first to face the jump-off and placed second overall, while Jessica Springsteen on RMF Swinny du Parc was second to take on the challenge, but finished sixth in the ranking with 8 penalties.
Winners Goldstein and Lizziemary were the third to take to the course and finished with a clear-round and two seconds faster than Kochetova and Veneno, with a final time of 35.92 seconds.
Three athletes were yet to take to the field and best the leader’s time: Brazilian Yuri Mansur Guerios, on Babylotte, and Canadian Eric Lamaze, on Chaco Kid, who finished fifth and fourth respectively. The pressure was on McLain Ward, who chose HH Azur di Double H Farm; a brilliant and experienced athlete, making a potentially lethal duo in any circumstance, but on this occasion, the American was unable to match the pace-setter’s time and finished third on 36.60.
In the end, it was a great win for the Israeli rider who has has been performing very well in extremely selective and highly prestigious competitions.
Over the course of the WEF Israeli athletes have been putting on a great show, with Daniel Bluman the star over the previous weeks, and the results are a very encouraging sign for the group whose stated goal is to have a highly competitive team ahead of the next Olympic appointments.
The full ranking is available at http://pbiec.coth.com/article/danielle-goldstein-scores-a-victory-in-384…
The other winners last week were Brazilian riders  Rodrigo Pessoa and Santiago Lambre. The former claimed the CSI2* GP on Chaganus, while the latter won the 1.50m of the CSI5* on Doloris.
Press Release PBIEC
Photo: Danielle Goldstein and Lizziemary. Photo © Ashley Neuhof