Tiffany Foster and Brighton Blaze to Winner’s Circle in $73,000 CaptiveOne 1.50m Classic CSI5*

Wellington, Fla. – Mar. 8, 2020 – Week Nine of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) continued with its third CSI5* week of competition at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center with a continuation of the CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic series. A total of 45 competitors were seen over the course, where they hoped to win their share of the prize money and add a 5* win to their resumes. At the end of the day, first really did prove to be the best as it was first in the order, Tiffany Foster (CAN) aboard Brighton who earned the top spot in the winner’s circle, marking Foster’s third victory in the series.

Taking place in the International Arena, Irish course designer Alan Wade set a challenging 13-obstacle first-round track with a tight 73-second time allowed. This necessitated riders to keep up the pace while making efficient use of the ring in order to execute a fault-free round. Foster, who was first in the order, was also first to go clear with a quick time of 69.54 seconds. She was soon joined by both Lucas Porter (USA) and Sloane Coles (USA) on their respective mounts. There was then a break in clean rounds as riders and their mounts fell victim to both the time-allowed as well as the difficulty of the track until world-ranked No. 2, Martin Fuchs (SUI), crossed the timers clean and just under the time allowed in 72.56 seconds aboard Stalando 2. Following Fuchs, Beezie Madden (USA), Bliss Heers (USA) and Lauren Hough (USA) were all fault-free, adding their names to the jump-off roster.

$73,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic CSI5* Winners - Tiffany Foster and Brighton — *$73,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic CSI5* Winners – Tiffany Foster and Brighton*

Following a tough first round, the seven horse-and-rider combinations returned for the jump-off, which consisted of seven substantial obstacles with several tight rollback turns. Serving as the pathfinders, Foster and Artisan Farm’s 14-year -old KWPN gelding, Brighton, set the pace with a clear round in a blazing time of 32.728 seconds to throw the gauntlet down as the first pair to return to the ring. Porter and Hope Street, an 11-year-old Holsteiner mare owned by SPR Fund One, directly followed and turned in a solid performance leaving all the rails intact, but were just a second off of Foster’s leading time. As the jump-off progressed only Madden and Abigail Wexler’s Breitling LS, a 14-year-old SLS stallion, came close to unseating Foster from her top spot but ended up crossing the timers fault-free just one-tenth of a second too slow, solidifying Foster and Brighton as the leaders from start to finish.

Foster and Brighton are not new to the winner’s circle, as this is their second win in the CaptiveOne 1.50m Classic series after topping the same class during Week Five. At the conclusion of WEF Week Three, Foster also topped the $37,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic CSI3* with Northern Light. Foster and Brighton will try their luck in the series final, which will take place Saturday night of Week Eleven.

Reflecting on the win, Foster said, “I think that this division, in particular, is great on many levels. It’s great to bring some young horses along and it’s a really nice step in between, being just below the grand prix level. For a horse like [Brighton], where you know you can go in and compete, the prize money is excellent, which makes it worth it to compete.”

Week Nine of the Winter Equestrian Festival will conclude its competition in the International Arena on Sunday with the $50,000 Griffis Residential Grand Prix CSI2*. The CaptiveOne Series will conclude during Week Eleven, during which the $137,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic Final CSI4* will take place under the lights Saturday night in the International Ring.

From the Winner’s Circle

Tiffany Foster – $73,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m Classic CSI5* Winner

On her horse, Brighton:
“We got him as a 7-year-old and he’s 14 now, so we’ve been together for quite some time. He’s just an incredible animal. He understands what he is supposed to do and he goes clear. We had statistics from [Canada’s] federation and his clear percentage is something like 93 or 95 percent clear rounds. It’s unbelievable. He is so intelligent, he knows where he’s at and I think that’s a big part of why he is so fast. He just judges the fences – you don’t rub them but you don’t get much clearance, but that doesn’t take much time so I think that is how he is so fast.”

On her jump-off round:
“I pretty much just tried to go as fast as I could. He is super fast and I know where I can make up the strides. He’s a little bit of a left drifter so I know anything heading left I can usually drop a stride and anything heading right I usually can’t. I learned a long time ago not to panic if I haven’t done the number I was hoping to because I know I’ll make it up somewhere else. And I knew the last line, the seven-stride, was going to be nice and forward for me, so it was a nice fast way to finish.”

On her plans for Brighton:
“I try to build a schedule around him that I think he will succeed with. I try not to overshow – I did Week Two and Week Five, and then this week. I aim for these classes because I think they really suit him and he is really consistent and has a great success rate in them. He’ll finish the circuit in the final.”

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