Wilhelm Genn and Bugatti win the $50,000 Grand Prix of Michigan, presented by the Ingram Family, closing out the second week of competition.
Keith Bollotte designed the tracks for the final day of the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival II. He set a galloping track that challenged riders with varying fence heights, a problematic and airy vertical-oxer double combination, and a daunting final white vertical-liverpool. Only eight horse and rider combinations were able to navigate the opening round consisting of 13 efforts, but the rails would continue to fall in the jump-off.
Beth Underhill (CAN) was the first to return for the short course, and she duplicated her first-round effort with her veteran partner Viggo to stop the clock in 39.548 seconds and set the time to beat for the class. Two rounds later, Germany's Wilhelm Genn entered aboard Bugatti, owned by Eduardo Leone and Genn, a horse that while not known for his speed has a reputation of clearing even the most difficult of courses.
Genn was aiming for the win Sunday, legging on the chestnut and following his initial plan to shave the seconds to the third obstacle of the jump-off, the airy white vertical with the liverpool. It was his move to make it down the line with Bugatti in eight strides that gave him the ability to keep a consistent pace through the rest of the course and land 1.648 seconds ahead of Underhill.
"I am very excited for Bugatti because he has not been the same here. He still jumped well, but he wasn't as he has been all winter," Genn explained. "We made some changes this week because he was sound, his legs were perfect, he wasn't lame, so there was not really a reason why he wasn't performing the same. He was still placing, but he wasn't winning."
The already "lazy" horse was feeling especially lackadaisical Sunday, and Genn could be heard entering the ring for the shortened track saying, "Come on buddy, wake up."
Genn recounted, "He was extremely lazy, so I had to ride him really hard. I have to get after him a bit. He is not big strided, so to get eight strides to the liverpool I had to make a good run at it so I could steady at the end. That gave me the chance to run him at it a little and keep the pace throughout the rest. I knew if I did the nine strides I would lose. I took the risk, and he stepped up."
It was only last week that Genn stood in the winner's circle with Welcome COR, and today he wore the same large smile. Remembering taking grand prix wins in Traverse City for over a decade with such well-known mounts as Happy Z, Chantal, and Ariado.
"It's the best feeling to be able to win two weeks in a row, especially with two different horses. A lot of the time when you win on the same horse, people assume that it is just because it is a good horse. When you win on different ones it gives you a little more credibility," he laughed. "It is very rewarding for me to win a grand prix here. We come back every year, and it doesn't matter what group of horses we bring, we usually are at the top or near it. With that being said, I am really proud of my horses, and the young ones we have moving up."
Erin Haas and As Di Chupito, owned by North Face Farm, were the next to challenge Genn's time. They made him sweat as he waited to see if they would catch his speed; however, as the pair landed from the final oxer, the clock read 38.554 seconds, just six-tenths of a second shy of the winning time.
"I am really excited to have a second place finish, I have been doing mostly the High Amateurs with that horse this year, and last week was the first prix I had done with him in a while," Haas explained. "Today he felt like he is comfortable at this height, and that I could go for the speed in the jump-off, and he was right there with me today."
Haas has been riding him for five years, and is who she would consider as her most veteran mount.
"Although I know him really well, he tends to be spooky, and he certainly keeps me on my toes," Haas joked. "There were technical parts that were hard to jump clean, and there were some areas where you could show off your speed. I was prepared for the double combination that saw all the faults because I thought he might spook at it so I was legging him through it while trying not to override it. I felt like today we matched each other."
The combination saw 10 rails from the field of competitors, with four of those rails tumbling down during the jump-off. Only four riders were able to post a double-clear effort, with Hayley Barnhill and Zephire, owned by Barnhill Enterprises, sliding into the third place with the last clear round of the jump-off in 39.370 seconds.
Underhill and Viggo completed the event in the fourth place finish with their pathfinding time of 39.548 seconds, while fifth place was awarded to Ryan Genn and Cookie Monster as the fastest of the four-fault efforts. Underhill also nabbed the sixth place with Cadermie, while Amanda Derbyshire and Goldbreaker took the seventh place. David Beisel and Ammeretto finished out the jump-off in the eighth place position.
The $50,000 Grand Prix of Michigan, presented by the Ingram Family, concluded the second week of the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival. The third week will welcome more exhibitors and spectators to the Traverse City-area, with numerous jumper classics, the $25,000 Welcome Stake, and the $50,000 Flintfields Farm Grand Prix. For more information on the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival please visit www.greatlakesequestrianfestival.com. To learn more about Stadium Jumping, Inc. please visit www.stadiumjumping.com.
Geoffrey Hesslink Wins $5,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby During Week Two of Great Lakes Equestrian Festival
Martha Ingram Tops $10,000 Great Lakes 3'6" Hunter Classic Leaderboard
By: Elaine Wessel
Geoffrey Hesslink and J'Adore win the $5,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby at the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival II.
Traverse City, MI - July 12, 2015 - With the rain finally subsiding to sunshine in the late morning, an anxious group of hunter riders took their turns navigating designer Danny Moore's natural course with the hopes of earning the largest part of the $5,000 pot in the morning's USHJA National Hunter Derby, sponsored by Camping World, as well as the $10,000 Great Lakes 3'6" Hunter Classic.
Moore presented riders with a variety of opportunities to earn points throughout the two-phase competitions, especially in the handy round, and while some inside option turns posed difficult for a large number of the competitors, those who were able to efficiently ride their chosen track proved why they deserved top marks from the judges.
The first round of competition served to reduce the field in the USHJA National Hunter Derby from the initial 27 down to the 12 returners with the highest scores. Headed into the handy phase, Martha Ingram and her family's Cayero had the lead with a score of 93, followed by the 91 score awarded to Hillary Johnson and Voyager, owned by Michigan-based Copper Fox LLC. The only two to earn a mark in the 90s, the leaders were trailed by a dense group of scorers in the 80th percentile. Hayley Barnhill with John and Stephanie Ingram's Ice Time claimed the third spot with an 89, Geoffrey Hesslink and Team Rakowsky Equestrian's J'Adore scored an 88 to sit in fourth, with another Johnson mount, Sorrento, taking fifth with a score of 87.5.
Rounding out the top six spots was Greg Crolick aboard Claybrook Farms' Encore CBF, earning marks of 87. With the top six separated by only 6 points, it was anyone's class to win as the second portion of competition got underway.
Riding in reverse order of the standings, the 12th place rider took to the ring first. By the time the sixth-place horse and rider were due to take their turn, the high score was already a 173, which meant that the frontrunners needed to produce a ride equal to or better than their initial scores to have a shot at the blue. Mastering the course better than the rest, Hesslink and his mare earned the highest score of the entire class with a 94, taking all the high options. Although three riders were still to go, Hesslink's cumulative score of 182 would prove high enough to hold onto the lead.
"We were sitting in fourth place after the first round, so I really wanted to make sure we put in a great handy to make up some points and boost our score. To do that, I knew we should take all the options available," winner Hesslink reflected on his winning ride. "I liked the options that the course gave us. It was difficult, but gave us several chances to show off in the ring."
Hesslink and the 6-year-old mare are new to each other, having only competed in the show ring a handful of times together. Regardless of their new pairing, the duo has proven to be a good match early in their career together, putting in strong performances in the Pre-Green Hunters. The champion horse and rider will stay in Traverse City for two more weeks, hoping to earn more top ribbons in the weekly classics and derbies, followed by the travel south to the Pre-Green Incentive Finals in Lexington, Kentucky next month.
"I definitely want to thank my whole support team, especially Ivan [Rakowsky] for helping with this. I couldn't have done it without them," the 19-year old was quick to note following his victory gallop.
Runner-up with a score of 179.5, Ingram and Cayero claimed the reserve tricolors and the second position in the victory gallop. Johnson took both third and fourth place with mounts Sorrento and Voyager, respectively, followed by Maria Rasmussen and Whitney Sinclair's Laredo in fifth. Melissa Donnelly and Corlando 49, owned by Elizabeth Becker, improved upon their first-round placing with a handy score of 87 to move into the sixth spot.
A quick footing drag and a course change later, entrants were prepped to vie for a stake in the $10,000 Great Lakes 3'6" Hunter Classic. Another two-round class, horses and riders had two shots to earn high marks from the judges, and after the first trips, owner-rider Clare Sargent and Coup de Coeur held the top spot with their score of 85. The competition was close, though, with four competitors hot on her tail brandishing tallies of 80 or above. Only one point behind Sargent was Ingram and her grey gelding Absolut, with Kristen Berian and her own Black Gold only one point out of the second spot. Ehrin Rittmueller and Chicago sat in fourth with their score of 82, and Rasmussen and Corporate, owned by Ashley Netzky, held fifth place with an 80-mark.
Tested by the challenges of the handy round, a bit of place-swapping occurred amongst the leaders in the second phase. Only two of the initial top six teams, Ingram and Rasmussen, improved upon their first-round score, with the others falling victim to unfortunate swapped leads, hard rubs, or a downed rail. Ingram took advantage of her opportunity as the second-to-last to ride, knowing that she needed better than an 80 to overtake the lead with only one pair to follow her. Rising to the challenge, she and Absolut garnered an 87 score, pushing them to the top of the leaderboard with a total of 171. Sargent and Coup de Coeur put in a solid trip as the last to go, but were unable to maintain their initial lead earning an 81.
"It's great that we have been able to ride consistently and see it work out for us in the ring," Ingram noted. The pair have racked up an impressive number of tricolors and top placing throughout the first two weeks of the series, as well as strong finishes in the weekly derby and classic. Today alone, she earned the reserve honors in the morning derby, only to improve to the champion spot in the classic.
The rider is into her second year with Absolut, a 13-year-old gelding. Coincidentally, the Traverse City show was host to their first ever competition together last year. The Ingrams and their horses will return home tomorrow to Nashville, Tennessee, where Martha rides with trainer Tom Wright, after which they will head to the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show in North Carolina.
Rasmussen and Corporate, frequent winners this week in the hunter ring, moved up from fifth to third with their high mark of 84, followed by Berian and Black Gold in fourth position. Sargent and her second mount, Albert, clinched the fifth position just ahead of Rittmueller and Christine Braeutigam's Chicago in the sixth spot.
Today concluded the second week of the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival, but Week III will kick off this Wednesday for more equestrian action. The week begins with the professional hunter divisions in the Main Ring, with the highlight $2,500 Classic events taking place Saturday and Sunday.
For more information, please visit www.greatlakesequestrian.com or www.stadiumjumping.com.