Monday, March 21, 2005

Scores and Temperatures in the Seventies- A Perfect Ending for the Zada WEF Dressage Classic CDI

Is this the Last Ride in Florida for Robert Dover?

With scores in the seventy percentiles up to eighth place in the Grand Prix Freestyle, the packed crowds enjoyed the perfect Florida weather. With the jumpers off to Tampa, the third and final Wellington Dressage event has the magnificent show grounds all to themselves. Stadium Jumping CEO Gene Mische and generous dressage sponsor Joe Zada were on hand for the awards ceremonies, where once again, and rumored to be the final time, Robert Dover would enter the Wellington arena to do his victory round. Dover and Kennedy will be heading to California to compete in the League Finals, in 2 weeks, and then ride or not Dover will be in Las Vegas to host a huge concert benefit at the World Cup Final for the Equestrian Aids Foundation.

The Zada Enterprises, LLC WEF Dressage Classic CDI never missed a beat as the show wrapped up today with 5 hours of musical freestyle performances that served as the grand finale for four days of fantastic dressage. Spectators lingered after the last musical freestyle of the afternoon as if hoping for an encore, but today’s performances would be hard to repeat.

In the biggie, the $2500 CDI Grand Prix Freestyle, six-time Olympian, Robert Dover held on to the top spot, riding Jane Forbes Clark’s FBW Kennedy to a winning score of 76.950%. “He was a little tense,” explained Dover, “He made those little mistakes at the beginning and end of the ride. But he is getting real confident and we had a great Grand Prix earlier this week and overall we have had a really great,great season.” The buzz about the dressage world is that this may have been Dover’s last ride in Florida, unless he gets a wild card for the Las Vegas World Cup Final.