Julie Welles and Twan won the $10,000 Not Your Daughter’s Jeans Welcome Stake (David Mullinix Photography)
Welles and Twan were the first pair to tackle the course designed by 1976 Olympic individual silver medalist Michel Vaillancourt of Canada. Despite having the unenviable position of going first in the order, Welles pulled out a win with Twan, a 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding. Welles also finished sixth on Bazooka de Muze and seventh with Ramses du Lavillon.
“I had to go first, so I was the time allowed guinea pig,” Welles laughed. “The course rode very nicely. The lines rode well; there were a few options (of how many strides to do between fences), and with Twan, if there’s a place to add a stride, I always will in the first round. Overall, what the course designer built was straight-forward and really nice.”
After a clear first round, Welles immediately advanced to the tie-breaker jump-off round with Twan. Welles laid down another clear round that would ultimately withstand six other riders who would follow in the jump-off. Henrik Gunderson and Ahaveros were the only other double clear round, settling for second after coming within one-tenth of a second of Welles’ time. The Danish rider also took fourth with Million Dollar Baby and fifth with Adlanteur.
“I thought my time was beatable,” Welles admitted. “From fence one to two was a rollback, and I thought I was a little slow. The rest of the course, Twan was pretty quick. I thought if I was going to get beat, it would have been from one to two.”
Twan is a relatively new mount for Welles after the gelding was acquired by current owners Missy Clark and Stephex Stables in April. Despite being on the older end of the age spectrum in the field of starters on Thursday, Twan proved that age is just a number.
“He’s a little older,” Welles acknowledged. “He showed a lot in Europe. He’s a horse that you can go into the ring and know you can give it a go to win and he’ll try his hardest for you. He’s super fast and turns really tight. You just have to steer him to the jump and he’ll try his best (to be clear). He’s so competitive.”
Of their win Thursday, Welles continued, “Twan is always in the ribbons. I’ve jumped a lot of clear rounds on him, and this is our second win together.”
With Twan and Bazooka de Muze, Welles will return to the grand prix ring on Saturday for the $30,000 Manchester & the Mountains Grand Prix, scheduled for 1 p.m.