WELLINGTON, Fla.--JJ Torano on Lyon 50 won the $50,000 U25 Grand Prix Series Final in an 11horse jump-off on Sunday, March 15 at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
JJ Torano on Lyon 50 (Photo by Sportfot)Torano, 15, who finished clean in 33.24, was almost two seconds faster than second placed Ariana Marnell on Jikke-Cara, who finished in 35.17, and Alexandra Ryden on Irandole du Flot was third in 35.38.
Campbell Brown, who finished 12th on Colina Z in the Final, led the season wire-to-wire to take the overall U25 Grand Prix Series title.
Torano, who is in his first year of competition in the U25 division, had missed about a month of competition in mid season due to a broken collarbone sustained when a horse fell with him.
The U25 Series creates an on-ramp to higher levels for young show jumpers, featuring various challenges like change in venue, jumping under the lights, jumping the open water, team formats and more.
Torano trains under the direction of John Brennan and Missy Clark at North Run with support from his parents, Jimmy and Danielle.
“I HADN'T watched Ariana jump, but I asked her in the school area what stride she had done, and kept that in the back of my mind. She has a bigger-strided horse than I do, but I tried to do the same as best as I could,” said Torano, who was mounted on a horse owned by Kadley Farms and North Run. “My horse is quick, he was amazing today, and I was happy with the way I rode.”
“When I got hurt, I was lying in the hospital bed telling my dad that my WEF season was ruined," said Torano. "To break my collarbone, be back in three and a half weeks, and have the second half of the season I’ve been having is a great feeling. My horses and I are right where we were going before I got injured."
“This is the sport that we do, there’s obviously risk involved with every class,” said Torano. “The best in the world makes mistakes, horses make mistakes, and what happened to me was a fluke accident. There’s a bit of fearlessness in everybody in order to do this sport. For the most part, when I walk in the ring for a class like this, I’m thinking, ‘let’s go fast and let’s win.’ I try my best not to think about anything else.”
Marnell, 20, finished in second after a season of balancing competition with studying Psychology and Sports Coaching at Auburn University.
Marnell won the U25 Welcome on the derby field during WEF 6.
“This season has been a little bit difficult because I’ve been away at school, so the last time I rode Jikke-Cara was a month ago, and I haven’t been able to do half the series," said Marnell. "In a way, I feel behind, but at the same time, my horses are really fresh and really excited to be here, so she came out today flying."
“I love this series,” said Marnell, who trains in the program of Kent Farrington. “I think it’s so good for us to develop under higher pressure than what we usually show in. It feels more like a grand prix format, and to practice coming back for the jump-off after is good experience.”
“This series has been really beneficial to me this season,” said third placed Ryden, who trains with Michael Hughes at Shane Sweetnam’s Sweet Oak Farm while studying electrical engineering at North Carolina State University. “I spent the fall focusing on college, so I was a little bit rusty at the start of the series. I was able to grow as it came."
“Two weeks ago in the night class, I made the jump off and was slower than I would have liked, so I wanted to go out there today and take a risk and push myself to go faster,” said Ryden.
On her way to winning the overall title, Brown, 18, opened the season with a grand prix victory on the grass derby field and contributed to the team victory in the stadium at Equestrian Village.
“The first time I did this series was last year, and I barely scraped into the final. So, it’s nice to be coming in on top of the series this year,” said Brown, whose time fault kept her and Colina Z out of the jump-off for the final, but left her still at the top of the leaderboard. “To lead for over 10 weeks and end up still on top at the end was very exciting. This series, where you have the standings over so many weeks, puts a little extra pressure, so I learned how to deal with that.”
Eva Fisherman was second overall, and Cassidy Rein of Canada was third overall.
