{"id":363144,"date":"2026-01-11T12:46:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/?post_type=article&#038;p=363144"},"modified":"2026-01-12T08:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:06:24","slug":"busca-roca-wins-one-for-spain-at-wellington-international","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/article\/busca-roca-wins-one-for-spain-at-wellington-international\/","title":{"rendered":"Busca Roca Wins One For Spain At Wellington International"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aboard a horse he\u2019s developed over the past four years , Spain\u2019s Gonzalo Busca Roca won his first Saturday Night Lights competition, the&nbsp;$140,000&nbsp;Palm Beach County Sports Commission&nbsp;Grand Prix&nbsp;CSI3*,&nbsp;&nbsp;in just his third attempt at the Winter Equestrian Festival\u2019s weekly night class.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Busca Roca was full of praise of Cristiano Obolensky, a 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Cornet Obolensky\u2014Eskkato, Stakkato) he co-owns with&nbsp;Stud V.V. BVBA&nbsp;and has brought up from the young horse levels.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Gonzalo-Busca-Roca-Cristiano-Obolensky-\u00a9Sportfot_1806-NH200626-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-post-363144 wp-image-363145\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cMy horse is a dream,&#8221; Gonzalo Busca Roca said of Cristiano Obelsensky, the horse he rode to the top of the $140,000&nbsp;Palm Beach County Sports Commission&nbsp;Grand Prix&nbsp;CSI3* on Jan. 10 at Wellington International (Fla.). &#8220;He\u2019s a real warrior and put a lot of effort in tonight.&#8221; Sportfot Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cEverything was delicate tonight which made it a tough course,\u201d Busca Roca said of Nick Granat\u2019s course, which saw nine pairs advance to the jump-off. \u201cMy horse is a dream. He\u2019s a real warrior and put a lot of effort in tonight. There were some very fast riders behind me, so I had to give it a try. I went as fast as I could, and it worked for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a 40-horse field where 14 countries were represented, Busca Roca took the top spot with a time of 41.70 seconds, while U.S. riders Tanner Korotkin and Marilyn Little tied for second on a time of 42.77 riding Kinmar Quality Hero and La Contessa, respectively. Along with her second-place finish, Little was awarded the&nbsp;Martha Jolicoeur, Douglas Elliman&nbsp;Leading Lady Rider Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe crowd here is pushing all the time,\u201d said&nbsp;Busca Roca, who is based in Wellington, Florida, with Kalany Stables\u2014of the electric atmosphere under the lights of WEF.&nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s a good atmosphere, very good sport and always difficult to win here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c[Cristiano]&nbsp;has a lot of blood, and he gets excited after a really fast round, so he\u2019s always waiting for me to tell him what\u2019s next,\u201d he added. \u201cHe\u2019s a very special horse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Watch their winning jump-off round, courtesy of Wellington International:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"410\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d_ZzTzEvrkE?si=pBgnf6MlXwKuVB2W\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From here, Cristiano Obolensky will enjoy a few weeks of rest before taking aim at the CSI4* on the grass derby field during WEF 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A tradition at Wellington International, Busca Roca\u2019s groom Carmela Martini was presented with the Double H Farm Grooms Award and $500 prize for her care and preparation of the winning horse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aboard a horse he\u2019s developed over the past four years , Spain\u2019s Gonzalo Busca Roca won his first Saturday Night Lights competition, the&nbsp;$140,000&nbsp;Palm Beach County Sports Commission&nbsp;Grand Prix&nbsp;CSI3*,&nbsp;&nbsp;in just his third attempt at the Winter Equestrian Festival\u2019s weekly night class.&nbsp; Busca Roca was full of praise of Cristiano Obolensky, a 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Cornet Obolensky\u2014Eskkato, [&hellip;]\n","protected":false},"author":114810,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"tags":[11544,11580,11578],"article_categories":[1985],"acf":{"ad_unit":"","ad_unit_mobile":"","spotlight_visible_till":"","image_home_display":"","facebook_image":"","featured_image_caption":"","hide_featured_image":["yes"],"sponsor_heading":"","sponsor":"","sponsor_logo":"","sponsor_link":"","related_gallery":"0","blogger_profile":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/363144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114810"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/363144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363147,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/363144\/revisions\/363147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363144"},{"taxonomy":"article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_categories?post=363144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}