USA Veteran & Pair New to Big Tour Capture Top 2 Places in Wellington CDI3* Grand Prix

Shelly Francis on Doktor in the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI3* GRand Prx. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 17, 2016–USA veteran Shelly Francis on Doktor won the CDI3* Grand Prix Thursday for their second straight victory by a narrow margin over the new Big Tour partnership of Olivia LaGoy-Weltz on Lonoir at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Great Britain’s Olympic double medal winner Laura Tomlinson was third on Unique with a personal best score.

Shelly Francis, who rode for the United States at the 1998 World Games and has competed Doktor on both sides of the Atlantic for the past three years, scored 70.180 per cent. Shelly of neighboring Loxahatchee and the 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding won the World Cup Grand Prix Special here three weeks ago that was their first career victory.

Olivia of Middleburg, Virginia and the 12-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding scored 69.940 per cent in only their second CDI Grand Prix after a successful career at Small Tour and was a traveling alternate for the U.S. team at the Pan American Games in 2015.

Great Britain’s Olympic team gold and indivudual bronze medal rider Laura Tomlinson on Unique scored 69.100 per cent that was their best result since starting their Big Tour career here a year ago and that took them to some top European shows before returning to Florida this winter.

Shelly credited Doktor to keep going while she had a bad migraine and was very nauseous on what was again an unusually warm 90F/32F day. She hopes to make the U.S. squad with Doktor and Danilo, both owned by Patricia Stempel, of about eight combinations to go to Europe for the selection of the American team for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Olivia LaGoy-Weltz and Lonoir in the CDI3* Grand Prix. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Olivia said that Lonoir had “kind of found his own” in the Grand Prix and now it was a matter of tying it together. At the end of the Global circuit, she plans to take Lonoir to the inaugural CDI at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina.

Laura Tomlinson said that Unique is a different horse than when the 12-year-old Holsteiner mare arrived for the second winter circuit in Wellington. This was the first time the duo had been able to perform Grand Prix in a row that “helped massively.”

She said she is thrilled with Unique’s rideability–“she’s really trying hard for me.”

Great Britain’s Laura Tomlinson on Unique in the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Laura’s plans are to go back to Europe Sunday with the Hagen, Germany, Horses & Dreams on the schedule for April. The pair are among several combinations vying for the fourth place on Britain’s Olympic team that appears likely to be made up of Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro, Carl Hester on Nip Tuck and Fiona Bigwood on Orthilia likely to fill three of the four spots on the team.

Results:

CDI3* Grand Prix

E: Storr – GBR

H: Lopes – POR

C: Matthiesen – DEN

M: Halsall – GBR

B: Tubman – CAN

		Rider	Nat.	Horse				E	Rk.	H	Rk.	C	Rk.	M	Rk.	B	Rk.	T	Pl.
		Francis, Shelly	USA	Doktor				67.900	8	68.100	7	72.800	1	69.800	2	72.300	1	70.180	1
		LaGoy-Weltz, Olivia	USA	Rassing’s Lonoir				69.500	1	71.400	1	69.000	5	68.100	4	71.700	2	69.940	2
		Tomlinson, Laura	GBR	Unique				68.400	4	69.300	4	69.200	4	70.300	1	68.300	5	69.100	3
		Matute Jr, Juan	ESP	Quantico Ymas				68.100	6	70.600	2	66.300	9	68.000	5	70.000	3	68.600	4
		Koschel, Christoph	GER	Butopiar				68.600	3	68.900	6	68.600	6	68.900	3	67.000	9	68.400	5
		Von Martels, Chris	CAN	Divertimento				68.000	7	69.800	3	69.800	3	66.300	13	67.700	7	68.320	6
		Lane, Megan	CAN	Caravella				68.300	5	66.900	14	70.900	2	68.000	5	66.600	12	68.140	7
		Perry-Glass, Kasey	USA	Trostruplunds Scarlet				66.400	15	67.800	9	67.100	7	67.700	7	69.100	4	67.620	8
		Jimenez Cobo, Juan Antonio	ESP	Sunny Boy				68.800	2	69.000	5	66.300	9	67.400	10	64.300	17	67.160	0
		Gundersen, Mikala	DEN	HF Victor				67.800	9	65.300	17	66.400	8	67.500	8	65.400	14	66.480	0
		Rizvi, P.J.	USA	Breaking Dawn				66.000	17	67.700	10	64.400	15	65.900	14	67.800	6	66.360	0
		Marek, Anna	USA	Unico G				66.900	12	68.100	7	65.100	14	65.700	16	65.800	13	66.320	0
		Poulin, Michael	USA	Thor M				67.500	10	64.600	18	65.700	12	67.500	8	65.400	14	66.140	0
		Layne, Kelly	AUS	Von Primaire				66.700	13	67.600	11	65.300	13	63.900	20	66.900	10	66.080	0
		Haddad-Staller, Catherine	USA	Mane Stream Hotmail				65.600	18	67.300	12	64.300	17	65.700	16	67.100	8	66.000	0
		Sprieser, Lauren	USA	Ellegria				67.500	10	66.200	16	65.800	11	66.500	12	63.200	20	65.840	0
		Poag, Katie	USA	Zonnekoning				66.700	13	66.800	15	63.100	19	67.300	11	63.900	19	65.560	0
		Rizvi, P.J.	USA	Unlimited				66.300	16	67.000	13	64.300	17	65.800	15	64.200	18	65.520	0
		Mabragana, Micaela	ARG	Tyara				64.900	20	64.100	19	64.400	15	65.500	18	66.800	11	65.140	0
		Bateson Chandler, Kathrine	USA	Alcazar				65.100	19	63.500	20	62.500	21	64.400	19	62.500	22	63.600	0
		Eadie, Louisa-Marcelle	GBR	Welt Cup				62.600	22	62.000	23	62.100	22	62.300	24	64.900	16	62.780	0
		Batchelder, Nora	USA	Bahai				63.300	21	62.300	22	61.200	24	63.300	21	63.200	20	62.660	0
		Kavey, Allison	USA	Queba HM				61.000	26	63.000	21	61.900	23	62.700	22	60.200	25	61.760	0
		Seidl, Franziska	SUI	Sigalia				62.500	23	61.500	25	60.800	25	61.900	25	61.100	24	61.560	0
		Nascimento, Maciel-Dum	BRA	Daniel de G				61.100	25	60.800	27	57.900	28	62.500	23	59.400	27	60.340	0
		Gentry, Kim	AUS	Leonardo				58.400	27	61.300	26	58.600	26	59.300	27	62.300	23	59.980	0
		Seidl, Franziska	SUI	Romano K				61.200	24	61.600	24	58.000	27	59.300	27	59.500	26	59.920	0
		Manfredi, Maria Florencia	ARG	Bandurria Kacero				58.400	27	58.200	28	62.600	20	59.900	26	57.000	28	59.220	0
		Uemura, Samira Mayumi	BRA	Tamarindo XI				54.900	29	57.000	29	54.200	29	55.500	29	54.900	29	55.300	0
		Jorst, Charlotte	USA	Kastels Akeem Foldager				0.000	0	0.000	0	0.000	0	0.000	0	0.000	0	0.000	0