The Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida transformed into a field of dreams for 32 Palm Beach charities in the second annual FTI Great Charity Challenge presented by Fidelity Investments® where over a million dollars was raised in an exciting Pro-Am show jumping event on February 19. A signature event of the 12 week FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival, the event featured 32 teams of three riders ranging in age from 11 to 70 where amateurs competed side by side with their professional heroes.
Each team was randomly assigned to a charity to compete for $1,020,000 in prize money with the winning charity receiving $150,000 with a sliding scale to 32nd place of $10,000. A crowd of 6,000 came out to enjoy the family fun as part of the Saturday Night Lights series which continues through April 2nd.
Every team was generously sponsored by an equestrian family with additional monies coming from corporate and individual donors as well as all proceeds from ticket and VIP table sales for the evening's event produced by Equestrian Sport Productions, which donates its staff and venue for the event.
The winning team, competing for Wheels for Kids, set a blazing fast time of 91.376 seconds. The riders were Olympian Pablo Barrios, 18-year-old Luis Fernando Larrazabal, and 14-year-old Emmanuel Andrade. All three riders are from Venezuela and competed for team sponsors, Gustavo and Carolina Mirabal of G&C Farm. The Mirabals, Barrios, and Larrazabal live in Wellington, FL
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