WELLINGTON, Fla.--Lillie Keenan on Highway TN won the $50,000, CSI3* Grand Prix during Saturday Night Lights on Jan. 17 at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
Lillie Keenam on Highway TN (Photo by Sportfot)USA’s Keenan leased Highway TN, owned by Team Nijhof, for the 2026 competition season and he lived up to her expectations during their first grand prix outing.
“I’m incredibly blessed that I got this opportunity,” said Keenan of her recent lease of the 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion, previously ridden by Dutch Olympian Willem Greve of Netherlands. “The relationship that he and Willem have, I can’t replicate that, but he educated the horse so beautifully. I know there’s nothing I’ll do that he hasn’t already done. Tonight, I wanted to get to know him and start to develop our own partnership.”
With Greve, Highway TN won the Rolex Grand Prix at the 2024 Dutch Masters and competed at the 2025 FEI World Cup Final in Basel, Switzerland.
“I’ve always admired the horse’s ferocity,” said Keenan after years of watching the stallion compete. “He’s very different than my other horses, and I think he’s going to make me a better rider. When the potential opportunity presented itself to have the ride, it was a no-brainer.”
IN THE jump-off, over a course set by Catsy Cruz of Mexico, Keenan was clean in 36.676 seconds.
Jaun Manuel Gallego of Spain on Chuflay was second in 39.587 seconds, and Mckayla Langmeier on Riesling van de Gaathoeve placed third in 40.373 seconds.
After placing in the top five in Thursday’s qualifier, their first-ever competition together, Keenan made the decision to tackle her and Highway TN’s first grand prix.
“It was bold to go straight into a grand prix, but the horse knows his job,” she said. “If I’m any kind of professional, I should be able to do it, and we pulled it off.”
As WEF week 2 was just a CSI3*, many of the top riders, including McLain Ward, Aaron Vale, Nina Mallevaey and Richie Vogel, had gone to Ocala to compete in the World Equestrian CS4* competition there.
Keenan is trying to deepened her string ahead of competitions for a place on the team for the 2026 World Championships in Aachen and the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“Team Nijhof has placed huge trust in me. In a career, you only get so many opportunities with horses that truly love their job, and I can tell just by this horse’s expression that he really loves his job," she said. "I’m making the most of the moment.”
Rising star JJ Torano was injured when his mount Quinci Quality fell at the last fence, and his father Jimmy recently posted on Facebook that he had dislocated his shoulder and broken his collarbone and had surgery and would be out for six weeks.
Saturday was Family Night at Wellington International, and a special presentation honored the Caristo Family with The Family Legacy Award, a new award at WEF.
Ralph and Holly Caristo, along with their daughter Heather and her husband Jesse Williams, accepted the award.
Luis Fernando Larrazabal of Venezuela had his third major victory of the week in the $32,000 1.50m Classic on Ribery on the grass derby field.
On Friday, Larrazabal won the $32,000 WEF Challenge Cup Round 2 on Baroness, and Saturday won on Ribery.
“I can see that my horses are jumping their best, so I’m very excited and enjoying this moment because it doesn’t last forever,” said Larrazabal.
in a 12 horse jump-off, Larrazabal was clean in 38.65 seconds, Ireland’s Bertram Allen on Zero King was second in 39.43 seconds and British Olympic champion Ben Maher on Ginger-Blue was third in 40.11 seconds.
Larrazabal was one of the last three to go over the course set by Olaf Petersen Jr.
“It helps going at the end because you can watch,” Larrazabal said. “There was a tricky line after the double, and there was a 10 or a leave out for nine. If I were at the beginning, maybe I would’ve done the 10, but after watching Ben do the nine before me, I decided to give it a go.”
