Saugerties, NY – With only one time fault to speak of in the second round of Sunday’s competition, Jimmy Torano of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and his mount Marcel, out-jumped 14 competitors to take home the Championship trophy, $30,000 in prize money, and the elegant Rolex watch at the $150,000 Rolex/USEF National Show Jumping Championship in Saugerties, June 12. As he was presented with his winnings, an ebullient Torano said, “I told my groom that if we won today, I’d give him my Rolex. I didn’t know they were giving one for this. It’s great—now we both have one!”

Jeffrey Welles finished second with a total of six faults for the three legs of competition, which started Thursday and ended Sunday.

Although thunder rolled throughout the Hudson Valley, and heavy rain threatened in unseasonably hot and humid weather, Marcel never wavered. “I just really tried to save my horse,” explained Torano. “In the schooling area, I jumped very little. I jumped four jumps just before I went in the first round and I jumped one jump before the second round. I just tried to save him. He’s new from Europe and he’s not totally acclimated, especially to this weather because it’s really hot over here now. I tried to do as little as possible and save him for the competition. I felt like, even though he was having trouble with the heat, he gave me his all through the last round. He did rub at the combination but it just woke him up and made him pay attention after that.”

All 17 hands of the eleven-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding were clearly paying very close attention. Marcel confidently attacked the beautiful wide-open course at picturesque HITS on the Hudson, host of the Rolex/USEF National Show Jumping Championship. In the first round, Torano and Marcel dusted the competition over the 12 obstacles, completing it in 81.9 seconds. After the first three rides of the day, the time allowed had been adjusted to 90 seconds from 88. Going in to round two, six faults ahead of Jeffrey Welles, Torano decided to take his foot off the pedal and methodically jumped the 9 obstacle course clear, adding only one time fault. “I had a rail to give and then would have had to have two time faults, so I took my time and wanted to just jump clean. With the new FEI format it’s one for every four, and I would have had to be eight seconds over the time allowed to have those two time faults. So I really, really took my time.”

Torano cited the tall verticals on the Steve Stephens designed course as the toughest challenge. “Steve set some very tall verticals today,” he said. “I thought ‘I’ve really got to place him just right at these tall verticals’ because I didn’t want him to get there and die-out off the ground, especially in the second round. There was a line on the far side of the ring, four to five, and fence five was a really, really tall vertical. Unfortunately, my wife had it down so I actually added a stride. When she went, we planned on seven strides and I added and did eight to make sure I had my horse together and to jump off his hind-end. My major concern was the tall verticals. A couple of people were worried about the combinations, but he actually jumps combinations really well.”

It was family day for the Toranos as Jimmy’s wife, Danielle won the $10,000 Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper High Classic, just before finishing fourth in the Rolex/USEF National Show Jumping Championship, in the same international ring.