The nine-year-old gelding, bought by Eva Castegren at the VDL Auction in West Palm Beach last March, had only been lightly competed up to this week. However the grey’s relative inexperience was no deterrent to his Florida-based rider.

The track, designed by German Martin Otto, proved to be challenging, with a particularly tricky triple combination at fence 10 taking its toll on competitors. While the time allowed was initially set at 71 seconds, this was later raised to 73.