Aaron Vale and Serval, owned by The Serval Group, led the victory gallop in the $25,000 HITS Ocala Grand Prix on Sunday, January 29, posting the only double-clear round out of a class of 22 horse-and-rider combinations. Course Designer Jerry Dougherty set a first-round course that saw only four riders advance to the jump-off.

Derek Petersen opened the jump-off with Heaven Bound, a 10-year-old former dressage horse he brought over from Germany in 2004. Had it not been for an unlucky rail at the last, Petersen might have won the competition with Heaven Bound. His lightning-fast time of 45.31 seconds was the fastest time of the competition. Instead he had to settle for second place.

Libby McKinney and Gun Du Desfi suffered the same fate as Petersen, also pulling the last rail in their jump-off round. McKinney's more conservative time of 48.49 seconds still wasn't the answer.

Vale took to the ring with Serval and set out to ride the delicate balance between clean and fast.

Callan Solem and Haiti Du Serein finished out the competition with an eight-fault performance in 54.40 seconds.

Serval was bought by a syndicate, The Serval Group, and arrived in the U.S. from Germany last December. Vale is still getting to know Serval, and so far he is very pleased with his performance. He is an eleven-year-old and has competed over in Europe with some moderate success. "So far it looks like we're starting out okay," said Vale. "There are just a few edges I need to clean up on him, but I'm liking him pretty much already. He is at a nice age when you can go on and be competitive pretty quickly."

Vale also placed fifth in the competition on Centor Z, owned by Town Creek Investment, and sixth on Solitude's Jas, owned by Solitude Farm.

The next grand prix show jumping event at HITS Ocala will be the $25,000 HITS Ocala Grand Prix on Thursday, February 9. The $50,000 EMO Grand Prix will finish out the week on Sunday, February 12.


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