Samuel Parot and Captain Z Pick Up Win in $139,000 Earl Scruggs Music Festival Grand Prix CSI 3*
Samuel Parot (CHI) and Captain Z conquered 33 entries to claim victory in Saturday’s $139,000 Earl Scruggs Music Festival Grand Prix CSI 3* at Tryon Resort. The duo jumped-off to a time of 39.55 seconds. Cinching second prize was Sean Jobin (CAN) and Darius, a 2008 Dutch Warmblood gelding (Warrant x Calvados) owned by Foxridge Farms Stables, with a time of 43.56 seconds. Claiming third at a time of 42.36 seconds with four faults was Audrey Muscari (USA) and her own Cicero HS, a 2010 Westphalian gelding (Carlucchi 13 x Funke).
More than half of the 33 entries attempted the first round before Juan Ortiz produced a faultless round to start the jump-off list, where only 5 entries progressed to the final portion of the Ken Krome (USA) course. Parot and his own Captain Z, the 2012 Zangersheide gelding (Calvino Z x Voltaire) bested the very difficult course by Krome. “It was a very difficult course, not easy at all. There were a lot of very tight turns and rollbacks everywhere except for the last line. You needed to do u-turn after u-turn, and it was very difficult, but good for my horse. My horse was fantastic.”
Captain Z and Parot have had an extremely successful Tryon Summer Series together, but tonight marks their first major victory as a pair. “This is his first big Grand Prix win,” said Parot about the winning mount of the night. “He’s jumped clear in FEI classes before, like in the 2*. But he’s young: he’s nine years old, and he’s really becoming better and better.
“In the first Grand Prix here, he had two down, then one down, then he [started going] clear. Before, I didn’t go as fast in the Grand Prix. I’m so happy with him,” Parot described about his winning mount of the night.
“He’s amazing and I’m so happy because he’s new and he has everything he needs to be a top, top horse: the scope, he’s careful, he’s fast, but needs experience.”