Ireland’s Philip McGuane returned to familiar territory at the grass derby field at Equestrian Village on Saturday with a win in the $32,000 ProElite CSI3* 1.45m Speed during the second week of the 2024 ESP Spring Series, presented by Florida Coast Equipment. The Spring Series at Wellington International runs for five weeks as part of the ESP Annual Series and concludes on May 12.
Winning mount Linguini de la Pomme, a 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare (Marius Claudius x Tinka’s Boy), won the same class in 2023 with fellow Evergate Stables rider, Nayel Nassar (EGY), in the irons. McGuane took over the reins in February just after the mare’s one-year anniversary as part of the Evergate string.
“I'm lucky that he let me borrow her for a few weeks,” said McGuane. “All the horses in the barn are a bit family horses, but she’s super fun, careful and really competitive.”
Mexico’s Ana Catalina “Catsy” Cruz set the course for a 57-horse field. From the 14 clear rounds over the speed track, McGuane put Linguini’s talent for speed across the ground to the test and stopped the clock at 65.67 seconds for the win.
Molly Ashe Cawley (USA) took second in 66.81 seconds riding Berdien, owned by Louisburg Farm. Ireland captured first and third with Max Wachman rounding out the podium aboard Quintini for owner Coolmore Showjumping in 67.55 seconds.
“She's quick at whatever she does; these classes are definitely her specialty because she’s fast, quick at the jumps and has a big stride,” said McGuane. “She’s super easy, though. Every day is the same and she always tries her hardest.
“It took a bit of jumping [to win today],” continued McGuane. “It was a careful enough track with a lot of right rollbacks. Both doubles needed the horses to be very honest. I got lucky today that she was great and jumping her best.”
McGuane is having a banner season in Wellington after winning the CSI3* Adequan® WEF Challenge Cup on the derby field during the sixth week of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF), in addition to taking the Lövsta Future Challenge 7-Year-Old Developing Jumper Series Final during WEF 10.
“I was very lucky to have all these horses jumping so well this winter and I was happy to jump out here on the field before we head back up to New York for the summer,” concluded McGuane.
Earlier in the day on the field, Estella Bonanni of Kingsley, MI, won the BrainJuice Junior/Amateur 1.40m Speed riding Lilly Pezy, owned by Estella Bonanni, and Germany’s Rupert Carl Winkelmann topped the Omega Alpha 1.34m Open Jumper Classic aboard Quinn 33, owned by Eickendorf Horses GMBH & Co. Attention now turns to Sunday’s $140,000 Bainbridge Companies CSI3* Grand Prix, which kicks off at 11am.
To view full results from Saturday at ESP Spring II, please click HERE.
