Shane Sweetnam of Ireland and Cyklon 1083 win the Gambler's Choice. (Al Cook)
The Gambler's Choice was an electrifying class where each jump was assigned a point value from 30 to 120 and each rider set his own course to accumulate the most points. Once the rider completed the course they had the additional choice of jumping the Joker fence for 200 bonus points, or the "All In Double-or-Nothing" fence, which was set at five feet, six inches, the highest obstacle on course. If the All In Double-or-Nothing fence was jumped successfully, the point total was doubled, if it was knocked down, the rider received no score.
The first rider in the field of 29 to successfully clear the "All-In" fence was Tim Gredley of Great Britain, on Unex Valente to score 1620 points. Beezie Madden of Cazenovia, NY, and Vanilla upped the ante with their doubled tally of 1660. Several more tried and failed, including Sweetnam on his first mount, Solerina. Then Charlie Jayne of Elgin, IL, rode in on Valeska and successfully cleared the big fence to score 1800 points and take over the lead. Leslie Howard of Darien, CT, and Zack were a few points shy scoring 1740 points.
As the last rider on the course, Sweetnam calculated that he could win with the proper plan.
"I heard what Charlie had so I figured out that my plan should win if I did it right. It didn't mean that I was right, but I was hoping," said Sweetnam. "Lucky enough I had been around once already with my other horse. It didn't work out the way I wanted, but I thought that my plan was close enough, so I stuck with it and it worked out."
Sweetnam calculated correctly, finishing with a whopping 2120 points. Sweetnam gave much of the credit to his horse. "He's just a winner, he really wants to win," said Sweetnam of the Swedish Warmblood. "The faster you go, the more he enjoys it. He's a great horse."
Wednesday night was also Western Night at the Pennsylvania National, featuring Invitational Barrel Racing and Flag Race competitions sponsored by W&L Sales, Susan and Stephen Symons.
In the Barrel Racing event, riders race around three barrels in a clover-leaf pattern against time. Anne Bathon of Spring Grove, PA, won the class riding Saphire's Diamond Kid. Bathon has been coming to Harrisburg since she was ten-years-old, so the win in the Barrel Racing event was very special.
"I love it here," said Bathon. "It means a lot to win. There are a lot of good horses here. It makes me feel good about how well my horse went. She really ran well, I am very happy with her."
Chandrelle Asper, also of Spring Grove, PA, finished the fastest in the Flag Race with Kaycee's Lil Lane. In the Flag Racing class, riders run in the arena, grab the flag from the bucket, turn the barrel at the opposite end and successfully "stick" the flag in the bucket. Asper had her own cheering section that watched her win the race. Some members of her family were in attendance as well as a few people from her workplace at the York County Prison.
"Some of the people I work with came to watch me ride, not the inmates," joked Asper. "It's nice to have people in the crowd that you know. It was a lot of fun. I am so glad that I was invited here. It was very exciting."
Western Night ended with an entertaining demonstration from Tommie Turvey. The horse trainer amazed the crowd performing various stunts with his horses and dogs. Turvey will appear every day until the end of the show.