Wellington, FL – February 3, 2026 – Grey, overcast skies greeted competitors and spectators alike on Saturday morning at the 2007 Winter Equestrian Festival, at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington, Florida. The festival, the longest running and largest equestrian showcase in the world, is currently in its second week of action in South Florida. The overcast day did nothing to put the damper on show jumping action, as nineteen year-old Carolyn Kelly of New York, NY, raced to her second win in as many days in Amateur/Owner Jumper competition at WEF.
The Saturday morning feature, the $10,000 Show Jumping Hall of Fame Amateur/Owner Jumper Classic, saw forty starters go to the 10 a.m. post in a class scored under Table II, Sec. 2 (a) - Time First Jump-Off.
Michel Vaillancourt of Canada is the Course Designer for Internationale Arena action this week. Of the forty that started, ten mastered Vaillancourt’s first round challenge to qualify for the timed tiebreaker.
New York City’s Carolyn Kelly took the early lead in the speed phase with Riant, the first of her two mounts. Kelly cruised home comfortably with a clear round in 43.217 seconds. Kelly lost her lead two horses later to Wellington’s Marley Goodman.
Goodman and her mount Ronya knocked a full two seconds off of Kelly’s leading time, moving to the top spot on the leader board with a clean round in a hasty finish time of 41.133 seconds.
Goodman’s quick time forced others to chase, and the next three competitors in the ring all had faults in their pursuit of the lead in the Saturday Classic.
Carolyn Kelly, a previous Hall of Fame Classic winner at WEF as a Junior Jumper rider, returned next, in search of her first victory in the Amateur/Owner division. She was up on Omona AW, the same mare that she rode to victory in yesterday’s Power and Speed. Picking a speedy pace from the beginning, Kelly made the task look easy, breaking the beams in 39.585 seconds, a full second and a half faster than Goodman. Kelly then withstood a final challenge from Tonya Henning of Canada, who caught Kelly’s time (39.262 seconds) with Millcreek’s Rosalind, but pulled a rail in the process.
“She knows her job and she wants to win,” said a smiling Kelly following her 1-3 finish. “It’s nice to go near the end, but I’m so comfortable with her that I really don’t care when I go. Last year, a lot of the times when I won with her, it was when we went first in the jump-off. It’s just that we get along really well,” she said. “We know each other so well that if we get into a sticky situation, I think we’re both comfortable that we can usually get out of it.”
Kelly recounted today’s test designed by Michel Vaillancourt. “The first round didn’t have as tight a time allowed as his courses normally have, but it was such a technical course that there were only ten clean in the end. It was a tough course,” she said, “Especially that last line. Because of the way he builds bending lines, there were a lot of different numbers you could do. I’m really lucky because both of my horses are very responsive to hand and leg, and that helps a lot in those situations.”
Kelly admitted that having two horses in the jump-off is certainly beneficial. “Oh it makes a huge difference. It really does,” she mentioned. “I was lucky last weekend to have my grey mare and Omona to do, and I was lucky this weekend to have my gelding and Omona again. It definitely is an advantage.”
Kelly was also pleased with her third place finisher Riant. “This is our first weekend doing the high classic with him. He was so good in the medium section last weekend that our plan was just to let him go and see everything,” she detailed. “He jumped great, didn’t touch a thing and we ended up third. So, I’m thrilled with him, too.”
Results of Class 1025 - $10,000 SJHOF A/O Jumper Classic - Nutrena/Western Hay Wellington Classic - February 3, 2026
1 659 OMONA A W CAROLYN KELLY 0.00 77.136 0.00 39.585
LULU EQUESTRN ENT
2 307 RONYA MARLEY GOODMAN 0.00 78.739 0.00 41.133
MARLEY GOODMAN
3 660 RIANT CAROLYN KELLY 0.00 80.124 0.00 43.217
LULU EQUESTRN ENT
4 421 MILL CRK ROSALINDE TONYA HENNING 0.00 79.337 4.00 39.262
5 922 PIA CHARLIE JACOBS 0.00 74.788 4.00 39.313
DEERIDGE FARM
6 2711 GRAF LANDO MEGHAN MORAN 0.00 82.937 4.00 43.664
MEGHAN MORAN
7 2622 MY FAIR LADY CARA CHESKA 0.00 80.833 8.00 41.833
CARA CHESKA
8 1908 OLAF VAN DE MESPEL NIKKO RITTER 0.00 76.386 8.00 41.949
WENDY PERALTA
9 1227 CYCAN ASHLEY FLEISCHHACKER 0.00 79.896 13.00 55.418
ASHLAND STABLES
10 920 CAUCALIS LOUIS JACOBS 0.00 79.353 elim.
DEERIDGE FARM
11 921 MIDNIGHTLADY CHARLIE JACOBS 4.00 72.602
DEERIDGE FARM
12 397 JACKSON ASHLEY BAKER 4.00 73.482
ASHLEY BAKER
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