Alex Granato kicked off Mad Season's LLC Florida circuit with a big win aboard Wood Run Farm's Mullaghdrin Rado in 47-entry $10,000 Paul Tracey Farrier Services Welcome Stake at the SFHJA Annual Charity Horse Show today. Alex also piloted Wood Run's Carlchen W to a 5th place finish. Alex had two of the seven total clear first rounds in the competition. After watching two speedy clear jump off rounds by Shane Sweetnam and Amanda Derbyshire, Alex set a blistering pace around the course, besting the fastest time by over a second and a half and proving uncatchable for the remaining three competitors. With his victory sealed, he guided Carlchen W to a steady pace around the course as the final entry in the jump off to seal 5th place.
"I was lucky enough to have two in the jump off and I went early on Tanner (Mullaghdrin Rado) and he felt really good, so I went for it a bit. With Carl (Carlchen W) being a young horse coming up, I didn't want to push him too hard, so Tanner made it an easy decision for me to not go as fast with him. It was a fun class, it was a nice step in for the winter to get in the international ring. It was a fairly competitive, 42 person class. When there only ended up being 7 clean I went in the ring with a bit of a plan and picked up a good canter.
"I was lucky enough to have two in the jump off and I went early on Tanner (Mullaghdrin Rado) and he felt really good, so I went for it a bit. With Carl (Carlchen W) being a young horse coming up, I didn't want to push him too hard, so Tanner made it an easy decision for me to not go as fast with him. It was a fun class, it was a nice step in for the winter to get in the international ring. It was a fairly competitive, 42 person class. When there only ended up being 7 clean I went in the ring with a bit of a plan and picked up a good canter.
(l to r, Abbey Bibbings, Alex Granato and Page Tredennick)