Germany’s Richard Vogel ended his Florida season with an exclamation point, taking the win in the $500,000 Rolex CSI5* Grand Prix during the final “Saturday Night Lights” of the 2023 Winter Equestrian Festival at Wellington International. Vogel expertly guided Cepano Baloubet, a 9-year-old German Sporthorse (Chaman—Soleil, Stakkato’s Highlight) owned by Coleridge Equestrian BV, to a victory in the gelding’s five-star debut.

“I’m overwhelmed,” said Vogel, 26. “Two weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to do this horse in this big [of] a grand prix. But he felt really good, and then we thought, ‘We’re here, and he’s in very good shape, so let’s give it a try,’ and he was amazing.”

Olympic course designer Guilherme Jorge set a challenging track for the 40 contenders in the Rolex-sponsored WEF grand prix finale. Vogel was second to attack the course, and he ultimately was one of seven to jump clean and make it to the jump-off. 

There, he set the time to chase from the pole position. His time of 40.53 seconds proved unbeatable. He was 9 seconds faster than the only other rider to jump clear, runner-up Roberto Teran Tafur of Colombia, riding Dez’ Ooktoff. Third place went to Irish Olympian Bertram Allen, who had the second fastest time, stopping the clocks in 40.6 seconds, but dropped a rail aboard Pacino Amiro.

The three U.S. riders in the jump-off—Karl Cook with Kalinka Van’t Zorgvliet, Alessandra Volpi with Berlinda, and McLain Ward with HH Azur—finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Cook and Volpi had 4 faults each, while Ward and “Annie,” fresh off their victory at the Dutch Masters, had an uncharacteristic 12 faults to finish sixth.

See complete results.

Watch Vogel’s winning performances, courtesy of Wellington International: