Photo credit: Sportfot

Nick Skelton (GBR) nailed another win at the Winter Equestrian Festival yesterday in the $32,000 WEF Challenge Cup 2, with11 year old HOLST grey gelding Carlo 273(Contender X Cascavelle) who is owned by Beverley Widdowson. Ireland's Richie Moloney on Slieveanorra(10-year-old ISH gelding by Voltaire x Flagmount Diamond) and Cian O'Connor on Blue Loyd 12(12-year-old Oldenburg gelding by Landor S x Hadj Ax) in second and third respectively.

This week's course designer in the International Arena is Luc Musette of Belgium. Skelton commented, "Luc is one of the best course builders. He's very underestimated and he's one of the best course builders in the world for me. For the amount of people in it today, it was a good course and a good jump-off. It wasn't crazy big. You don't have to go in there every time and jump massive courses. The horses will last longer doing what we're doing instead of keep testing them every day to the maximum."

There were 59 starters with 18 clear in the first round. Skelton and Carlo 273 had a jump- off time of 38.39 which proved undefeatable.

Results of the WEF Challenge Round II:

Final Results: $32,000 WEF Challenge Cup Round 2

 1. CARLO 273: 2001 Holsteiner gelding by Contender x Cascavelle
NICK SKELTON (GBR), Beverly Widdowson: 0/0/38.39

2. SLIEVEANORRA: 2002 Irish Sport Horse gelding by Voltaire x Flagmount Diamond
RICHIE MOLONEY (IRL), Equinimity LLC/Richie Moloney: 0/0/39.16

3. BLUE LOYD 12: 2000 Oldenburg gelding by Landor S x Hadj Ax
CIAN O'CONNOR (IRL), Ashkirk Ltd. & Cian O'Connor: 0/0/39.76

4. TACKERAY: 2000 KWPN stallion by Quick Star x Sandro
Ben Maher (GBR), Emma Phillips:0/0/39.87

5. ROUNDTHORN MADIOS: 2002 Irish Sport Horse gelding by Condios x Clover Hill
Andrew Bourns (IRL), Andrew Bourns: 0/0/40.40

6. DERLY CHIN DE MUZE: 2003 BWP mare by For Pleasure x Nebab de Reve
ERIC LAMAZE (CAN), Ashland Stables: 0/0/40.77

7. LAPACCO: 1999 Holsteiner gelding by Lavaletto x Grundyman
SCHUYLER RILEY (USA), South Beach Stables: 0/0/41.17

8. NOUGAT DU VALLET: 2001 Selle Francais gelding by Scherif D'elle
KATHERINE DINAN (USA), Grant Road Partners: 0/0/41.91

9. SIMON: 1999 KWPN by Mr. Blue x Polydox
BEEZIE MADDEN (USA), Abigail Wexner: 0/0/41.99

10. WATERLOO: 2000 Dutch Warmblood gelding by Heartbreaker x Ekstein
SCHUYLER RILEY (USA), M. Michael Meller: 0/0/42.68

11. WALDMAN Z: 2003 Zangerscheide gelding by Canabis Z x Zortin
CHARLIE JAYNE (USA), Pony Lane Farm: 0/4/37.64

12. O'CONNELL STREET: 2003 Belgian Warmblood gelding by Acaletto x Cento
CIAN O'CONNOR (IRL), Ronocco Jump Ltd & Lander De Bruyn: 0/4/39.30

Full results can be found here