Mill Spring, NC – May 4, 2019 – Sharn Wordley (NZL) and Gatsby kicked off the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) “Saturday Night Lights” 2019 series with a win in the $72,000 St. Luke’s Hospital Grand Prix CSI 2*, stopping the jump-off timers in 39.018 seconds to take a second win on the week. Annabella Sanchez (USA) and Incitatus, her own 2009 Oldenburg gelding (Stakkatol x Con Air), was just behind on a time of 39.154 seconds to earn second, while Fernando Cardenas Jr. (COL) and Quincy Car, a 2004 Oldenburg stallion (Galiani Car x Amour Parfait) owned by Fernando and Meredith Cardenas, dashed around the short course in a time of 39.941 seconds to secure the final podium spot.<\/p>\n
Course designer Manuel Esparza (MEX) tested 20 entries over his first-round course, with eight pairs accepted back for the jump-off round. The entire podium all finished just under 40 seconds, and Wordley explained that he and Gatsby would have been more comfortably in front had they not had a little hiccup on course:<\/p>\n
“My strategy [in the jump-off] was to go not crazy fast, but to keep all the jumps up. The second-to-last jump, on the rollback, it didn’t quite work out the way I wanted to and I had to add an extra stride,” he said. “That’s why I was on the same second as the second and third [place riders] – I was planning on being a bit faster than what I was, so I got lucky there.”<\/p>\n
His advantage, then, came from his naturally fast horse, Wordley detailed. “I just have a very fast, smart horse. That’s where I had the advantage – I have a great horse. The other riders have great horses, too, and it was very close. But, I could’ve been beaten at that one line – I got lucky.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mill Spring, NC – May 4, 2019 – Sharn Wordley (NZL) and Gatsby kicked off the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) “Saturday Night Lights” 2019 series with a win in the $72,000 St. Luke’s Hospital Grand Prix CSI 2*, stopping the jump-off timers in 39.018 seconds to take a second win on the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[97,52,2044],"tags":[2033,2010],"class_list":["post-5856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-events-magazine","category-events-magazine","category-magazine","tag-sharn-wordley","tag-tryon-international-equestrian-center"],"yoast_head":"\n