Wellington, FL, 25 January 2019 – U.S. dressage stars and currently ranked number two in the world, Laura Graves (USA) and Verdades performed a beautiful test and earned a score of 84.935% to win the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle CDI-W, presented by the U.S. P.R.E. Association on Friday, January 25, at the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, FL. Week three of AGDF will conclude on Sunday, January 27, and AGDF continues through March 31.
“This freestyle was nice. This was the second time I’ve ridden to this music. I’m definitely feeling a little more comfortable with it,” commented Graves, who has captured medals at the Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games with Verdades, her 17-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Florett AS. “I’m glad to add another good score to qualifying [for the World Cup Finals]. In a normal year we’d be qualified by now, but we have one more show to do so we’ll be back at the end of February, I believe, to hopefully qualify.”
Kasey Perry-Glass (USA) and Goerklintgaards Dublet, a 16-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding by Diamond Hit owned by Diane Perry, came in second with a score of 82.425%.
“The weather was great for Dublet. He loves the cold weather, said Perry-Glass of her 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon (WEG) team silver medal-winning partner. “It really gets him a little bit more amped. I’m just very proud of him for this show, to come out and score a personal best in [yesterday’s] grand prix out of WEG. Unfortunately, I had a little bit of a spook coming in [the freestyle], so that kind of put me a little behind my music. I felt a little rushed throughout my choreography, but he nailed everything.”
PBIEC Press Release