Nick Skelton was the only rider to have double clear rounds in the $25,000 Suncast 1.50m Classic at the 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival being held in Wellington, Florida.

He accomplished double clear rounds on both of his mounts in the class, giving him first place with Nemo 119 and second on Carlo 273, both owned by Beverly Widdowson. Nicole Shahinian-Simpson and Kilkenny Rindo were the fastest four-faulters for third place.

The first week of the FTI WEF is sponsored by G&C Farm and concludes on Sunday, January 17. The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival has 12 weeks of competition that conclude on April 4, 2010, and the circuit will be awarding almost $6 million in prize money through the circuit.

Skelton rode Nemo and Carlo yesterday in a 1.40m class to begin his winter season in Florida and finished third and seventh. "I was pleased with them; they both jumped well," he said.

Skelton and Nemo, an 11-year-old Holsteiner by Cambridge, finished second in last year's $400,000 FTI Consulting Finale Grand Prix and had a solid summer of competition. After a month off, Skelton is bringing him back to the circuit and believes he has the talent to repeat his success.

Skelton was happy to go second in the jump-off with Carlo, a younger horse. "Carlo has just turned nine and he's pretty inexperienced, but he can step up a bit now and do some more. He's a very good horse, very careful, but you have to take your time a bit more with one as careful as him. You don't want to have too many slip-ups otherwise you can go backwards so quick," he explained. "It was good to go second with him. I didn't have to put too much pressure on him. But he's a fairly quick horse when he goes anyway." Of his opening week one-two finish, he joked, "To win anything at my age is nice."