Kent Farrington and Orafina made their weekend trip north of the border a winning one, scoring firsts all around Friday, June 3, in the $186,900 Longines Grand Prix CSI5*. It was the first five-star win at Thunderbird Show Park (British Columbia) for the Olympic rider, and the first win in a five-star grand prix for his up-and-coming partner Orafina.

Kent Farrington and Orafina celebrated their win in the $186,900 Longines Grand Prix on Friday at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, B.C. Mackenzie Clark Photo

“Orafina is a very special horse,” Farrington said of the 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare (For Fashion—Corofina, Canturo) owned by Kent Farrington LLC. “I started working with her about two years ago, and she’s very careful. She’s obviously extremely fast, [but] she’s a very particular horse. She’s so easy to ride, but she’s really an incredible athlete and starting to come into her own.”

The pair topped a field of 36 entries and an eight-horse jump-off, blazing to a win with a time of 42.04 seconds, nearly 2 seconds faster than their closest competitor, Mexico’s Jose Alberto Martinez Vazquez, who stopped the timers at 43.92 seconds with Quinley to take second. Katherine Strauss (USA) and Cincinnati Kid were third.

The win comes on the heels of the pair’s seventh-placed finish in the $535,000 Rolex Grand Prix CSI5* at the Royal Windsor Horse Show (England) three weeks ago and a second-place finish at their five-star outing before that, the $406,000 Douglas Elliman Real Estate Grand Prix held March 12 at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Florida).

“This is our first five-star win, and I’m so very proud of that today,” Farrington said Friday. “It was a great first round and a great jump off.”

Watch Farrington and Orafina’s winning jump-off round: