2025 WEF $385,000 Fidelity CSI5* Grand Prix in Wellington, FL

Dr. Gregory Beroza, aka HorseDoc ‘Talking Horses,’ offers this recap of the $385,000 CSI5* Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival.

WEF Fidelity Fountain. Photo by GBeroza.

The Winter Equestrian Festival hosted a $385,000 CSI5* Grand Prix sponsored by Fidelity Investments as the fifth of 12 weeks of Saturday Night Lights Shows on February 8^th, 2025. It was a spectacular event with 40 top international show-jumping riders competing for prize money plus points toward their world class rankings and future Olympic competition potential.

Fidelity pre-show course walk. Photo by GBeroza.

Eleven of the world’s top international athletes had a clear first round and advanced into the final jump-off round of competition on a challenging course created by 2024 Paris Olympic Games designer Gregory Bodo from France. Many Olympic athletes competed, including Germany’s current Paris gold medalist Christian Kukuk, Sweden’s Henrik Von Eckermann (currently ranked first in the world), U.S. silver medal Olympian and Kent Farrington (currently ranked third in the word), U.S. multi-medal Olympian, Hall of Fame Inductee Laura Kraut, and many other accomplished contestants.

The standing room-only crowd included devoted show jumping fans as well as many locals who came to enjoy this action-packed high-level equestrian competition. We ran into Tiffani Steer and Ainsley Hayes, both executives from The Stronach Group’s 1/ST Racing, who were attending. As Thoroughbred racing and gaming executives, 1/ST Racing is now collaboratively sponsoring a competitive portion of the WEF events.

Tiffani Steer and Ainsley Hayes. Photo by GBeroza.

The final tie-breaking jump-off action came down to a winning difference of 0.34 seconds. Local Wellington horseman and USA Olympic silver medalist Kent Farrington scored the fastest time of 35.11 seconds, with 2024 Paris Olympic Gold Medalist Christian Kukuk (GER) scoring a close second place finish at 35.45 seconds. Here are the top eight riders at the completion of the event:

Kent Farrington and Greya. Photo by SportFot JB.

There was an insightful post-competition press conference at which both Farrington and Kukuk commented about the serendipitous advantage afforded Farrington due to his ride later in the competition. Kukuk remained the early leading rider throughout the jump-off until Farrington had his opportunity late in the competition to take the lead. Farrington was able to watch Kukuk and push his performance to marginally faster fractions.

Top three finishers. Photo by GBeroza.

Mimi Gochman finished third and expressed her gratitude sharing the podium with such accomplished riders she has looked up to as role models her entire life. Both Farrington and Kukuk commented that they are focused on finishing the WEF season with a solid performance in the impending Rolex $750,000 U.S. Equestrian Open CSI5* on Saturday night, March 29^th.

After the spectacular equestrian competition ended, the celebratory festivities for the sold-out crowd of attendees continued into the night. Please watch the live coverage and enjoy the excitement of being present for this amazing event.

Dr. Gregory A. Beroza, DVM, DACVS, DABVP has been a practicing veterinarian and consultant for 42 years; and HorseDoc® ‘Talking Horses’® media host, author, and consultant since 2007. Dr. Beroza is a multimedia host and broadcasts his productions, including a new Podcast, via his WuzUpDoc Media website: www.WuzUpDoc.com. He can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social media sources.

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