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Canadians
Capture Catskills III Grand Prix |
Horse
Shows In The Sun presented its third Grand Prix show jumping event
of the Catskills series on Sunday. The $75,000 class was the highlight
of five days of showing at Kelly Farms in Ellenville, NY.
It
was Canada’s day as Canadian Olympic veteran Mario Deslauriers
topped a field of twenty-five riders to capture first place in the
$75,000 Rio Vista Grand Prix. Keean White, an up and coming young
rider, also from Canada, took second place. Danny Foster of Ontario,
Canada designed the course. Danny was the individual winner of a
Pan American Gold Medal, and he is the current Chef d’equipe
of the Canadian Team. The Canadian presence was also felt in June
when Canada’s seven-time Olympian Ian Millar won the second
of the Catskills Grand Prix.
Twenty-five
horse and rider combinations competed over Danny Foster’s first
round course. Following the class, Foster noted that the field consisted
of several young horses together with seasoned campaigners. Therefore
his goal was to design a fair yet demanding course that would encourage
the inexperienced entries, while still meeting the standards of
a $75,000 class matching the prestige of competition in the Catskills.
Each
of the sixteen jumping efforts on course produced at least one fault,
and it was the twelfth horse in the order, After Eight ridden by
Christine Tribble of Suffield, CT, that turned in the first clear
round. Then the fifteenth and seventeenth horses in the order also
went clean – Everest with Mario Deslauriers and Libidou with
Keean White. There were no further clear rounds, so those three
proceeded to a shortened jump-off course.
Mario
Deslauriers aboard Everest produced the only double-clear performance,
which made him the winner. He was followed by Keean White, second
and Christine Tribble, third. Deslauriers, in addition to being
a veteran of the Canadian Olympic squad, is also a past winner of
the World Cup for show jumping. White is in his first year of Grand
Prix competition, and he has already placed in several Grand Prix
including Horse Shows In The Sun (HITS) Ocala.
In
conjunction with a great day of show jumping, the Kingston Hospital
hosted a reception in the VIP tent at ringside for its dedicated
group of donors. At the same time HITS presented “A Taste of
the Hudson Valley & Equine Art Exhibit,” with six restaurants
and Brotherhood Winery participating. Over four hundred people were
served. Participating artists included: Karin Ruoff, poster artist
for HITS Catskills 1998 & 1999; Jean Haines; Rachel Monticelli;
poster/program artist for HITS Catskills 2002; Rita Dee, Peirre
Rich; and Sharon Edmonds.
Next
week the Hudson Valley Regional Chili Cook-Off will take place on
the horse show grounds. This is a sanctioned competition, which
will be judged from 11am to noon. There will be twenty cooks participating
from the tri-state area. Winners will qualify for the finals in
Reno, Nevada, in October. Everyone is invited to taste the chili
and salsa from noon to 3pm.<![endif]>
The
horse show resumes on Wednesday with a regular schedule of hunter
and jumper classes. The next Grand Prix event will be on Sunday,
July 28th at 1pm.
www.HitsShows.com
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