Pablo Barrios and G&C Sinatra, owned by G&C Farm and Gustavo and Carolina Mirabal, were part of history today at Spruce Meadows when they won the $175,000 Nexen Cup Derby at the National Tournament. Barrios, originally from Caracas, Venezuela, and now residing in Wellington, Florida, is the first rider from Venezuela and only one of two Latin American riders to win the derby.

Barrios and G&C Sinatra delivered only the third clear performance in the history of the Nexen Cup Derby. Barrios will represent his home country of Venezuela in this year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

Barrios and G&C Sinatra, an 11-year-old KWPN gelding by Epilot x Libero H, jumped the course with no faults in 155.355 seconds, and they were the only clear round in the class. The course features 25 jumping efforts, including the infamous bank and devil’s dyke, which all spans over 1100 metres with a time allowed of 165 seconds. Their winning pace was by 10 seconds over Ashlee Bond (USA) and Cadett 7.

Barrios said, “There were a few options, and I took all of them. He’s not a fast horse; he’s very scopey. I took every cut to make the time. He didn’t waste time in the air today though.”

This was Barrios’ second time competing at the storied Spruce Meadows competitions. In last year’s Nexen Cup Derby, he and G&C Sinatra finished second. “This year I was hoping to win,” Barrios revealed. “The course was exactly the same; it’s the same every year. The horse knew the course. I knew he would be fine. I just tried to make it in the time and clear. The horse jumped it easy and nice. He really wanted to win today.”

What also made today’s win special for Barrios was that it was his first victory at Spruce Meadows. “It’s very nice to win here. There is always a great crowd, and this year was beautiful and so nice. It was such a good class. I think it’s great to be part of history. It was the first time that we heard our national anthem here, so that was very exciting. I’m very happy to start out the series this way, and I hope the horses keep going well.”

Gustavo Mirabal commented, “We are very proud to represent Venezuela and to have this win for our country. We hope to have many more!”

Earlier in the week, Barrios rode G&C Sinatra to fourth place in the $35,000 Spectra Energy Cup 1.60m. G&C Sinatra was also fourth in the $25,000 ATB Financial 1.60m.

“He was very consistent this week,” Barrios said of G&C Sinatra. “He was clear in all three classes. The older he gets, the better he gets. I know that he feels better and more experienced every time. He’s becoming a better horse every day.”

On the opening day of the Spruce Meadows summer tournaments, G&C Blanchee Z and Barrios were seventh in the $30,000 Enbridge Cup 1.50m out of 57 entries.

In Saturday’s $200,000 CN Reliability Grand Prix, Barrios and G&C Quick Star 11 were eighth.

Thanks to an incredible start of the year, Barrios has moved up from #96 to #63 in the world in the Rolex Rankings.

G&C Farm and Pablo Barrios will compete next week at the Continental Tournament at Spruce Meadows, on June 16-20, 2010.

Please visit www.farmgc.com for more information on G&C Farm, their riders, and their horses. You can also find out more by visiting the G&C Farm page on Facebook or follow G&C Farm on Twitter.

G&C Farm brings exceptional horses and top Venezuelan jumper riders to the highest levels of competition. Their state-of-the-art, full-service facility is located in Wellington, FL.

The vision of G&C Farm is to improve the instruction and training of their top jumper riders and horses in order to seek a place on the Venezuelan team for all high level tournaments and top competitions, including the World Equestrian Games and Olympic Games. G&C Farm sponsors top grand prix rider Pablo Barrios of Venezuela, as well as other up and coming riders. The technical advisor at G&C Farm is Olympic Games course designer Leopoldo Palacios.