New Year’s honors for Lefebvres, Larrazabal and Ribery

There is nothing like starting the New Year with a win. “I mean, it’s more than I expected,” said Venezuela’s Luis Fernando Larrazabal after victory in the $30,000 WEF Challenge Cup Premiere aboard Ribery. “So I’ll take it all day.”

Auction purchase of Ribery is coming to fruition for Sabrina (center) and Stéphane (left) Lefebvre. Photo: Sarah Eakin

The pair won the 10-strong jump off over the Eric Hasbrouk designed course at Wellington International, in a time of 39.83 seconds, with Germany’s 17-year old Tony Stormanns and Cassius Clay claiming runner up placement from their round against the clock in 40.758.

Luis has been working with the nine-year old Belgian Warmblood mare, owned by Sabrina Lefebvre, for two years. She first showed significant promise as a seven-year old, finishing second in the 7-year old Final at WEF in March 2024.

Effortless to the last – Luis and Ribery take on the WEF Challenge. Photo: Sarah Eakin

“As an eight-year old, with the quality that she has, I really wanted to take my time before things get real,” Luis said. “In the summer luckily enough we have some nice National Grands Prix here – not too big – on the grass field, so it’s a good step up. So that’s what I did in the summer and went up north to keep jumping and by the end of the year, she was jumping two-star, and she was jumping very good, just making silly mistakes as any young horse taking it to a new level. But I think she learned a lot from those experiences, because today she was right on.”

Ribery’s journey to a win in the opening week of the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] 2026 began as a four-year old at a Youhorse auction when the young mare was introduced in the program with confident panache. ‘Who wouldn’t be enthusiastic about this horse? Well, we are. This BWP mare has everything, we believe, for reaching the top sport,’ the auction copywriter enthused, going on to point out that Ribery is a ‘daughter of Aganix du Seigneur Z (Ogano Sitte), who is loved by breeders as well as riders. Aganix performed at 1.60m level under Jos Lansink and passes on a lot of scope to his offspring. Dam Osasoena descends from the legendary progenitor and top sport stallion Diamant de Semilly.’

$35,000 WEF Challenge Premiere week win for Luis and Ribery. Photo: Sarah Eakin

To date, the mare has lived up to the early hype and the decision to purchase at auction has proved well made.

“The owners Sabrina and Stéphane are big supporters of me and we have been working together for a couple of years,” said Luis. “They bought her [Ribery] at auction as anybody with a dream,” he said. “Let’s hope that dream comes true.”

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