Another Super Saturday for Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa at the 2006 Winter Equestrian Festival

Wellington, FL – March 4, 2006 – Olympic Gold Medalist Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil galloped to victory once again in Saturday’s main event at the Winter Equestrian Festival. In doing so, he captured his second 1.50m Classic in a row and notched his third win in five weeks of the Saturday specials. Pessoa, the three-time World Cup Champion who has called Wellington home all season, rode Cantate Z to the win for the second straight week.

Sixty-four starters took the field for today’s 1 p.m. kick-off. Today’s €25,000 1.50m Classic, CSI-5* is part of CN Worldwide Global Champions Week at the Winter Equestrian Festival. Today’s event was a speed class scored under FEI Art. 238.2.1. Time First Round. Marco Cortinovis of Italy is the Course Designer for week five in the Internationale Arena at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club.

Today the premium was on clean rounds, as only twelve of the sixty-four came home without penalty. Four riders had clean jumping efforts but failed to get home within the allotted time. Another twelve lowered the height of a single obstacle, eighteen collected two knockdowns, and sixteen had three rails or more.

Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa overpowered the starting field today with the talented mare, Cantate Z, owned by Orlandi. Pessoa raced home in 57.00 seconds flat, which accounted for a margin of victory of 2.41 seconds over second place.

Last week, Pessoa and Cantate Z had to slice and dice their way to victory in the tight confines of the Internationale Ring Annex, but today is was a wide open galloping track that proved equally easy for his mare. “It’s a totally different class out there on the big field,” said Pessoa. “Like I said last week, she’s been improving every class. Every time in the ring she’s better and more confident, and she’s starting to be really competitive now. She’s very, very careful, she’s really serious about her business, and she’s improved tremendously throughout the circuit here,” he said.

How does Pessoa account for this tremendous run of Saturday success? One thing for sure, today he came in well rested. While many of his fellow competitors jumped into the wee hours of the morning on Friday, Pessoa was home in bed. “I stayed through half of the class last night and then went to sleep,” he admitted. “You know, some days things just come your way. The mare jumped good, and I thought it was a good track for her to take a good shot at it. I kind of waited for this class all week and it worked out good.”

Asked if she’ll move up to Sunday action here in Florida, Pessoa said no. “She’s a mare that had a few problems with her previous rider in Italy. I’ve been riding her for a year and a half now,” he explained. “It took me a long time to get her confidence and to get her going like this, so we’re going to take it step by step. So she won’t move up here in Florida.”

For tomorrow’s big event Pessoa will turn to his Olympic Gold Medal partner and three time World Cup Finals Champion mount, the veteran Baloubet du Rouet. “Tomorrow, big boy’s coming out,” smiled Pessoa. “We’ll see how he goes. He’ll be fresh. He only showed once three days ago over a couple of fences, so he’ll be fresh, but I really look forward to having him in tomorrow’s class.”

Sunday’s star-studded day begins with the Show Jumping Hall of Fame Junior Jumper Classic and the Senior Classic. On Sunday afternoon at 2p.m., the €150,000 CN Worldwide Florida Open, presented by Cosequin marks the debut of the Global Champions Tour. Sunday’s main event is also the fifth stop on the year long American Grand Prix Association (AGA) Tour.

Next week, the final week in Wellington, features the $75,000 Nations’ Cup presented by CN, CSIO 5*, a competition that pits teams of show jumpers from multiple countries against each other in two rounds of competition. The 2006 Nations’ Cup, presented by CN on Friday, March 10th, marks the fifth time that the Winter Equestrian Festival will host this prestigious international event. Making the competition especially exciting, the Nations’ Cup will once again be held at night under lights in the Internationale Arena.

The richest show jumping event of the seven weeks in Wellington will take center stage on Sunday, March 12th. The $150,000 US Open Jumper Championship, presented by CN, CSIO 5*, brings the WEF Wellington series to a close.

Results of Class 105 - $29660 1.50m Classic CSI 5* FEI 238.2.1- Iternationale Arena – 3-4-06 Wellington Open CSI 5*

• 1 785 RODRIGO PESSOA BRA CANTATE Z 0.00 57.00 $2375 ORLANDI
• 2 3315 LEOPOLD VAN ASTEN NED VDL GROEP SPIGA 0.00 59.41 $1350 STOETERY DUYSELHOF
• 3 3181 FRANCOIS MATHY BEL IVOIRE DU ROUET 0.00 59.69 $800 INGRID NORMAN
• 4 3140 PHILIPPE ROZIER SIENNA VAN PREMGLE 0.00 60.13 $650
• 5 1862 ERIC LAMAZE CAN NARCOTIQUE DE MUZE II 0.00 61.02 $550 ASHLAND STABLES
• 6 894 CANDICE KING USA CALISKAN 0.00 62.53 $450 LOUISBURG FARM
• 7 2889 HUGH MUTCH USA ALL STAR 0.00 63.32 $400 DARAN COHN
• 8 1864 COURTNEY VINCE CAN NALLA 0.00 66.25 $350 PEBBLE CREEK HLDGS
• 9 1678 KIMBERLY PRINCE USA CINNAMON 0.00 66.46 $300 ALICE LAWAETZ
• 10 3176 EIKEN SATO JPN CAYAK DH 0.00 66.65 $275 EIKEN SATO
• 11 866 LISA SILVERMAN USA FLUBBER COCOY 0.00 67.30 $250 LISA SILVERMAN
• 12 3139 HERVE GODIGNON FRA MISS GUEVARA 0.00 71.61 $250 THE FRENCH TEAM
• 13 3099 NORMAN DELLO JOIO USA POPEYE 1.00 74.48 $250 POPEYE GROUP
• 14 1854 PATO MUENTE ARG LARIUS 12 1.00 74.76 $250 JUDITH ARNETT
• 15 1025 GUILLERMO WILLIAMS MEX ACAPULCO 1.00 75.90 STANFORD GROUP MEX

PHOTO CREDIT: Cantate Z and Rodrigo Pessoa race to the finish in the $25,000 1.50m Classic at WEF on Saturday. Photo by Kenneth Kraus/PhelpsSports.com