WEXFORD’S Bertram Allen stormed to victory in Sunday’s $140,000 IDA Development three-star Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida – the second year in a row that the Irish rider has won this competition.
Riding his own 15-year-old gelding ‘Harley VD Bisschop’, Allen was among 15 combinations who jumped clear in the first round to make it into the jump-off. With the best position in the second round, Allen and ‘Harley VD Bisschop’ were the final combination into the jump-off and the pair flew through the finish beam with a winning clear in 39.66 seconds – over a second ahead of British runner-up Ben Maher with ‘Faltic HB’.
“For some reason or other, I don’t always get the nicest jump-offs on ‘Harley’,” admitted Allen of the Belgian Warmblood by ‘Dulf van den Bisschop’ x ‘Coronado’.
“I was just going to have my round, and if it all came off, I knew he could be fast enough, but I wasn’t going to force anything. And then right from the start, I caught one to two good, the double [combination] good, and just kept going from there.”
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