Lamaze Is 3 for 3 After $35k Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 4

Check Picobello Z is a 10-year-old Zangersheide gelding (Cardento x Orlando) that Lamaze purchased from Ilan Ferder when the horse was seven years old. Check Picobello Z is owned by Artisan Farms, LLC & Torrey Pines. The gelding had an injury that kept him from competing at the end of the 2015 season, but he came back to place second in the $35,000 Suncast® 1.50m Championship Jumper Classic during week one and now picked up a win.

“I am really excited, especially today,” Lamaze stated following his round of honor. “I believed in this horse from the beginning, but it was a long time in the making. He was not the easiest horse to ride, and he was always really careful. He is still a little hard to maneuver at times, but I always believed that he could be a really good horse. He started to show us that by the middle of Spruce Meadows in the summer tour, and then he got hurt, so he missed the rest of the summer. I was not sure what I was going to have at the beginning of this circuit with him, but he came right back where he left off, so I could not be happier.”

Lamaze watched some of the early jump-off rounds and made his plan to do nine strides in one line where everyone else paced ten, but once in the ring, he did not need to leave out the stride.

“I did not count between jumps one, two, or three to be honest,” Lamaze detailed. “After fence one, we landed a little right, so I just got back on track and then I stayed on ten strides. I got a good slice at the Liverpool and then I knew I could trust him at the double. He has a big stride, so coming home was good. I was not sure if I was on it. It did not feel like the fastest jump-off to me, but today it was good enough.”

The rider spoke further about Check Picobello Z and the transformation that the gelding has made in the last couple of years, specifically coming back for jump-off rounds.

“His ride is a bit different,” Lamaze said. “He does not really appreciate help. He likes to go his own way, and you have to just leave it up to him and he really does amazing things. At the beginning of last year in Florida, he jumped a lot of clear rounds, but I had trouble coming back in the jump-offs. I always had a rail or two, either from conditioning or from him trying so hard in the first round and being tired for the jump-off, or me trying too hard in the warm-up. It just did not work in the jump-offs. Now a year later, things have changed. This is his first big win.”

“As an eight-year-old, I never went fast in any classes because he was not so easy to ride, and I did not believe it was a good thing for him to learn,” Lamaze continued. “When he was nine I tried, and by then I was a little bit confused about how to come back with him in a second round, but by the summer he started getting things.”

With another win under his belt, Lamaze plans to bring out his big guns next week with another horse, Fine Lady 5. ‘Fine Lady’ was the rider’s mount for three out of his five Challenge Cup wins in the 2015 circuit and will contest the class in next week’s CSI 5* competition.

“That is my most ready, competitive horse,” Lamaze stated. “She is so dependable, and I know her so well. She is so quick. She will do two 1.40m classes this week and come out in the WEF (Challenge Cup) next week, so we will see what comes of it. I am starting every horse very easily. I do some easy classes and then I come into these classes with horses that are fresh and capable, but you need a certain amount of luck as well, which I seem to be having on Thursdays.”

In addition to the winning prize money, Lamaze picked up a $3,000 bonus for the third week in a row for wearing SSG ‘Digital’ style riding gloves as part of the SSG Gloves ‘Go Clean for the Green’ promotion. That brings his tally up to $9,000 in bonus money for the circuit so far.

Also showing in the International Ring on Thursday, Darragh Kenny (IRL) and Kerry Anne LLC’s Glamour van de Kakebeek won the $8,000 Douglas Elliman 1.45m jump-off class. Emanuel Andrade was victorious in the $2,500 MAYBACH – ICONS OF LUXURY High Amateur-Owner Jumper speed class with Belita.

The fourth week of competition at the 2016 Winter Equestrian Festival continues on Friday with a busy schedule on two sides of the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. The $35,000 Illustrated Properties 1.45m Classic will be featured in the International Ring, and the Asheville Regional Airport Adult Amateur Hunter 36-49 Section A will award championship honors in the Rost Arena in the morning. The $25,000 Artisan Farms Under 25 Grand Prix Team Event, presented by the McNerney Family, will be held at The Stadium at PBIEC in the evening. For more information and full results, please visit www.PBIEC.com.

Final Results: $35,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round IV

Please visit www.pbiec.com or call 561-793-5867 for more information on the Winter Equestrian Festival.

Source: Lauren Fisher and Callie Seaman for Jennifer Wood Media, Inc.