Lauren Hough takes WEF Challenge Cup round four with Quick Study

Lauren Hough and Quick
Study. By sportfot.com

The USA's Lauren Hough earned the top prize in Thursday (3 February 2011) afternoon's $31,000 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) Challenge Cup round four with Laura Mateo's Quick Study, after competing in a close jump-off and heading it by the in the fastest time by just 0.06 seconds.


The course was built by Britain's Richard Jeffery and eight of the original 54 entries jumped clear in the first round. It was a race to the finish in the jump-off as each competitor flew through the timers just moments apart.


The USA's Beezie Madden and Coral Reef Via Volo blazed the trail setting the opening time of 44.79 seconds, which was good enough for eventual fourth place. Canada's Eric Lamaze and Artisan Farms' Atlete Van'T Heike immediately followed and topped Bezzie's' time by just over a second, taking the runner-up spot eventually.


None of the following five could catch the two leaders, but Lauren and Quick Study were still to come as the last on the course.The pair managed to shave the smallest fraction off the lead-time and take the win.

Lauren was all the more happy with Quick Study's performance today as the 12-year-old gelding, who is by Quick Star x What a Joy, has had time off since finishing fourth at the Gucci Masters in Paris in December.

Words from the winner

"It was obviously a very small margin," said Lauren. "I didn't get to see Eric go, but I had a pretty good feeling after seeing Ashlee [Bond of the USA] and she was close in second. My horse is naturally fast. After the triple bar I had quite a big distance to the skinny and he is quick in the air, so it was just the smallest 100th of a second margin.

Lauren Hough during presentatition.
By sportfot.com

"I think Richard did a super job with the course today. In the beginning I thought that there were going to be too many clear, but it really ended up being what I would call a perfect course. It was not so big today, it was just a nice course for us to get our toes wet and get a feel for it. Sometimes in these classes they have to be careful not to build too big and you end up with 20 clear, so today was just the perfect height and eight clear was really nice."

In next week's WEF Challenge Cup, SSG will award a $6,000 bonus to the winning rider if he or she is wearing their SSG 'Digital' Gloves since no bonus was awarded this week. Although Lauren was wearing SSG Gloves, they were not the Digital style, and the $3,000 bonus will now roll over into week five.


For full results, click here