The American rider was the only competitor that culminated his two clear rounds beating US Audrey Coulter. Daniel Pedraza of Mexico occupied the fifth place. (Photo © ESI Photography)
Returning to the win route, Ashlee Bonds of the United States won the $100,000 Longines FEI World Cup Jumping to represent the seventh and last sleeve of the North American League – Western Sub-League, valid for the classification of the World Cup Final in Omaha.
As Thermal, California and part of the HITS Series headquarters of the CSI 3*-W week, Bonds got the only double clear of the afternoon alongside the 13-year-old mare Chela LS (Chapultepec la Silla x Tlaloc la Silla) owned by Little Valley Farms, getting a time of 40.91 seconds for their tiebreaker. The second position was for Audrey Coulter and Alex (Arpeggio x Mon Cheri), a 13-year-old gelding owned by Copernicus Stables, Llc, knocking down a pole and totaling 4 fouls in 45.29 seconds.
The decisive round was made up of 4 qualifiers, where Lane Clarke of Australia with 12-year-old gelding Balu U (Baloubet du Rouet x Caletto II) was third, accumulating 8 fouls in 40.10 seconds, while fourth place was Karl Cook with 8 faults and 41.05 seconds and the 13-year-old mare Tembla (Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve x Cavalier).
The only representative of the Latin Ranking was the Mexican Daniel Pedraza, who exceeded the agreed time of the regular round by 1 hundredths of a second and was ultimately penalized with 1 foul with his 12-year-old stallion Arc de Triomphe (For Pleasure x Wellington). With this result Pedraza added 50 World Ranking points.
