Caelinn Leahy and Dymendy ©Sportfot.

Mill Spring, NC – June 21, 2019 – Caelinn Leahy (Maple Park, IL) and Dymendy sped to win the $5,000 Horseware Ireland Welcome Stake at Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC), stopping the jump-off timers at 39.881 seconds. Todd Minikus (Loxahatchee, FL) guided his own JuJu VDM, a 2009 Belgium Warmblood mare (Toulon x For Pleasure 310258786), to claim second place on a clear jump-off performance of 41.114 seconds, while Brittni Raflowitz (Palm City, FL) aboard Dustin 254, a 2007 Westphalian gelding (Dollar Du Murier x Lancer III) owned by Garland Stables, took third-place honors with another clear round and a time of 43.143 seconds.

Course Designer Keith Bollotte of Lake Lure, NC had 30 pairs test the course, with nine returning for the jump-off round. Although Leahy and the 2009 Dutch Warmblood mare (Quasimodo van de Molendreef x Julio Mariner XX) owned by Steve Schaefer have only been together since the beginning of this year, Dymendy has been very consistent ever since coming off a win at Devon, Leahy explained. “She’s a really fun mare, and she loves to go fast, so this was the perfect class for her.”

Leahy continued: “I watched Todd [Minikus] go [in the jump-off], and obviously Todd is super fast. I studied his round and I noticed that his horse jumped the second jump amazingly and landed a little wider after it, and I thought that maybe I could be tighter there. So, after the second jump when I was rolling back to the combination, I decided to try to make up some time there because his horse was so fast everywhere else,” Leahy detailed. “My mare is also really great about those long gallop stretches. I just lean back, and she sets herself up really well. I really just tried to take a little bit of a shot and gallop down to where I could.”

Leahy shared that Dymendy is not the first horse she has competed at the Grand Prix level, stating, “I had a horse that I was competing in the Grand Prix classes, but unfortunately he passed away in 2017. The next year I wasn’t really showing in the bigger stuff, and then we bought her in the fall and imported her from Europe in January.”

For more information and results, please visit www.Tryon.com.