Wellington, FL – February 18, 2005 - 35 competitors turned out for the fourth round of the $25,000 WEF Challenge Cup CSI 3* at the 2005 Winter Equestrian Festival at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington, Florida. This week’s show is the Lincoln Florida Classic/WCHR Huner Spectacular.

The WEF Challenge Cup is a nine week long series of $25,000 Grand Prix events that conclude in Tampa as part of the final week of the Winter Equestrian Festival. The series is also a major money qualifier for the grand finale of the Winter Equestrian Festival, the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational. The Invitational will be held on Saturday night, April 2, 2005, under the lights at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.

Guilherme Noguiera Jorge of Campinas, Brazil, is the course designer this week. The Challenge Cup classes alternate between jump-off classes and first round speed events. Scoring for today’s class was under FEI Table A. One Round Against the Clock. Art. 238.2.1 or “Fastest Clear Round.”

The hunters, spotlighted this week at the Winter Equestrian Festival, are competing in the Internationale Arena. Today’s WEF Challenge Round 4 was held in the adjacent DeNemethy Arena.

Laura Kraut, already a Grand Prix winner three times this circuit, made a bid to make it four with a clean round and a time of 66.94 seconds. Aboard Joyous owned by the Summit Partners, Kraut rode out of the second spot in the jumping order.

Following Kraut, nine entries challenged, and while a couple had the time, none could produce the clean round to go with their fast times. Three riders, in fact, had the time to win but had a single rail down. The exacting course saw only seven clear rides on the day. Twelve horse and rider combinations had four faults and another six had eight faults. Ten duos accumulated 12 or more jumping penalties.

In the 12th spot, Languster, owned by Ryan Automotive and ridden by Nona Garson, produced the second clear ride of the day but came home well short of Kraut’s target time in 70.57 seconds.

Today’s Challenge Cup headlines came from the 14th spot in the jumping order and were made by Cara Raether and News, owned by the Trelawny Farms. Raether piloted her chestnut gelding around the twisting and turning course in a new top time of 65.91 seconds to take over the number one spot. Raether’s only challenge after that came from Little Big Man, owned and ridden by Laura Chapot, as the second last to go in the class. Chapot finished short of the mark however, in 67.87 seconds, winding up third.

Today’s win was the biggest of the 25 year old Raether’s career. “This is my biggest win for sure. I won with News in Culpepper, Virginia and in Lexington, Kentucky, but for sure today was the biggest and the nicest,” she said, smiling.

Raether noted that getting a chance to watch Kraut go earlier was a big help. “I watched Laura Kraut go first and I know she’s fast and I knew her horse is similar to mine, so I watched her plan,” Raether explained. “I know that News is very fast and I had a chance to catch her. I just had to be sure to slow it down to the double combination that was causing all of the problems today and then work my plan and hope for the best,” she said.

Raether also acknowledged the change of venue. “You’re in a much smaller space in the DeNemethy Arena,” she said. “So really, the only place you can be faster is in the turns. In the Internationale Arena you definitely can leave out some strides here and there. The big ring favors the big, long striding horses, so this really favored me today,” Raether admitted. “My horse doesn’t have that biggest stride but can make the really tight turns.”

The partnership with her mount News is beginning to develop into something special. “I’ve been with him four years. I know him very well,” Raether related. “He’s a ten year old that I purchased as a six year old. He’s really come on strong since last year in Europe, where he won a lot of the speed classes. That’s why I chose the ‘speed’ WEF Challenge Cups as my classes.”

For Raether, being healthy is something she’s really cherishing right now. “For sure. I was injured twice during the 2003 season. I had reconstructive shoulder surgery and then I broke my humerus (long bone of the arm),” noted Raether. “The shoulder was a bit of an ongoing situation that they finally insisted I fix and just as I was coming back from that surgery, a horse in France flipped over on me and I broke my arm. Each injury kept me out of the saddle for three months, so I pretty much missed the entire 2003 show season,” she said. “It took almost all of last year to get back to where I was before the injuries.”

Today’s win moves Raether into contention for one of the coveted spots in the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational, the season ending finale, at Raymond James Stadium, in April.

Official Results - #101 $25,000 WEF Challenge Cup Series, Round 4, CSI 3* -2-18-05-DeNemethy Arena

• 1 – News, Cara Raether – 0/65.91
• 2 – Joyous, Laura Kraut – 0/66.94
• 3 – Little Big Man, Laura Chapot – 0/67.87
• 4 – Languster, Nona Garson – 0/70.57
• 5 – Tarco, Candice King – 0/71.73
• 6 – Going Bananas, Ragan Roberts – 0/74.05
• 7 – Canaille, Margie Engle – 0/75.14
• 8 – Faldo, Anne Kursinski – 4/63/75
• 9 – Conquest II, Beezie Madden – 4/64.57
• 10 – Lorenzo, Anne Kursinski – 4/64.99
• 11 – Nadia, Georgina Bloomberg – 4/66.11
• 12 – Quarco V’T Merelsnest – 4/67.85

PHOTO CREDIT: News and Cara Raether Win $25,000 WEF Challenge Cup Series, Round 4. Photo by Randi Muster