The Atlanta Fall Classic is well underway and we are having great weather and a great competition. We have some stalls available for next week… we will be having two $25k Open Grand Prix Classes plus Double Classic Money for Hunters and Jumpers plus the National Classic Equitation Finals. If you want stalls, please call us a 770 602 2510.
The Gulfport prize list is at the printer and should be mailed over the Thanksgiving week and the prize list should be posted very soon. I am hoping for this weekend.
See you at the rings,
Bob Bell
The Classic Company, Ltd. www.ClassicCompany.com
Phone/FAX: (843) 768-5503
Post Office Box 1311 Johns Island SC 29457
George Morris, Jane Forbes Clark, Arle Adams, Ken Adams. Photo By: Kenneth Kraus/ PhelpsSports.com.
Gladstone, New Jersey – November 10, 2010 – The United States Equestrian Team Foundation is honored to announce a $5 million endowment bequest from Ken and Arle Adams of Wellington, Florida. This gift will mark the creation of the Ken and Arle Adams International Competition and Training Grant Fund. Providing an annual grant, the fund will add supplemental funding to the three Olympic disciplines’ High Performance programs: dressage, eventing, and show jumping. These funds further augment the international competition and training plans that repeatedly generate Olympic and World Championship medal winning performances. Grants of such generous nature are what allow the United States of America to remain at the top of the international equestrian sport.
“This extraordinary gift will be the largest gift ever made to the USET Foundation, and the Foundation is so grateful to Ken and Arle for their generosity. Leaving a dynamic legacy that will forever bear their name, the Adams’ gift will be a determining factor in this country’s ability to medal consistently in international championships in the future,” remarked Jane Forbes Clark, USET Foundation President and CEO.
SAUGERTIES, NY (November 9, 2010) — HITS, Inc. is pleased to announce that the qualifying specifications for the world’s richest hunter class have been finalized and are now available on-line at HitsShows.com.
The $500,000 HITS 3’3” Hunter Prix Final will take place the weekend of September 10-11, and will be featured alongside the second annual $1 Million Grand Prix at HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties, New York. This unprecedented Hunter Prix Final will be the culmination of more than 30 qualifying events that will take place at each of the five HITS horse show circuits starting in January 2011.
The Devoucoux Hunter Prix will be the official qualifying class for the $500,000 HITS 3’3” Hunter Prix Final and will be offered as a weekly event at the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit in Ocala, Florida; HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, California; HITS Arizona Winter Circuit in Tucson, Arizona; HITS Culpeper Show Series in Culpeper, Virginia and HITS Saugerties Show Series in Saugerties, New York. Each Devoucoux Hunter Prix held through September 4 will count toward the 2011 HITS Hunter Prix Final Rider Rankings. In addition, HITS will host one Wild Card class at HITS-on-the-Hudson VIII, September 7-11, from which the winner, if not already qualified, will earn a spot in the Final.
SBS Farms' Jersey Boy and Jennifer Alfano at National Horse Show Photo Credit: Lauren Fisher/PMG
Buffalo, NY – November 8, 2010 – SBS Farms had a fantastic competition at the 127th National Horse Show under the direction of renowned horsewoman Susan B. Schoellkopf. SBS Farms’ rider and head trainer Jennifer Alfano rode to numerous accolades aboard her top mounts, while student Meredith Lipke showed her horses to top ribbons as well. The riders were thrilled with their week of competition in Syracuse, NY, and were elated with their conclusion of the Indoor circuit.
Alfano showed SBS Farms’ gelding Jersey Boy to the reserve championship in the Regular Working Hunter division after two days of success in the War Memorial Arena. They won the handy round and were also awarded two thirds over fences and second place in the under saddle. Alfano and Jersey Boy also participated in the $50,000 NHS Hunter Classic to honor legendary horseman, Charlie Weaver and were awarded fifth place honors for their efforts.
Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs’s daughter Hillary showed her wining style at the 2010 Washington International Horse Show in DC the last week. The 22 year old, who lives between Palm Beach, FL and Sussex, NJ, competed as “The Flash” aboard Marengo placing in second during always colorful and exciting $20,000 Gambler’s Choice Costume Class. Rodrigo Pessoa won the class, decked out in an authentic Formula One racing outfit, complete with helmet. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s daughter Georgina (also of Palm Beach and NYC) placed 6th, in a full nun’s habit. The 3rd place ribbon in the costume class went to Shane Sweetnam, who partnered with Dobbs to win Saturday night’s $15,000 Open Jumper Pair Relay.
Please contact the Washington International Horse show www.wihs.org.
Hayley Barnhill was victorious with Podest during the 2010 ASPCA Maclay National Championships. Photo Credit: Rebecca Walton/PMG.
Syracuse, NY – November 7, 2010 – Today marked the final day of competition at the 2010 Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament featuring the 127th National Horse Show. The highlight event at the Oncenter Complex in Syracuse, NY, was the 2010 ASPCA Maclay National Championships. Riders worked all year to qualify for this event and after three phases of competition and it was 17-year-old Hayley Barnhill of Collierville, TN, leading the victory gallop and taking home the championship honors.
In the first round of competition, 153 riders were tested on a course designed by the judges, Scott Hofstetter and Melanie Smith Taylor in cooperation with course designer Richard Jeffery. The fences included a vertical-oxer-vertical triple combination, a natural fan jump off of a sharp left turn and then a sharp right turn to the ASPCA fence. Riders then continued to a tall vertical on the left lead before making their way to a triple bar double combination. While some riders had difficulties during the first round, the course was very inviting overall and gave riders many opportunities to show-off their horsemanship.
The Netherlands' Jeroen Dubbeldam steered BMC Van Grunsven Simon to victory in the fourth leg of the 2010/2011 Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping series in Verona, Italy. Photo: Kit Houghton.
DUBBELDAM DELIVERS IN VERONA by Louise Parkes
Verona (ITA), 7 November 2010 – The Netherlands’ Jeroen Dubbeldam broke the German stranglehold on the 2010/2011 Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping series when delivering a sensational victory in Verona, Italy this afternoon. German riders dominated at the first three legs at Oslo (NOR), Helsinki (FIN) and Lyon (FRA) so far this season, but the flying Dutchman set an impossible target when second to go in today’s thrilling 10-horse jump-off and couldn’t be caught despite the best efforts of the world-class field that followed him.
His winning margin was a narrow one however as Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, winner with Checkmate just a week ago in Lyon, came dangerously close to making it a back-to-back double with a superb performance from the 17 year old Shutterfly who was only fractionally slower against the clock. And Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Casall La Silla finished third in the star-studded line-up. Dubbeldam was crowned Olympic champion in Sydney (AUS) in 2000, Michaels-Beerbaum’s many successes include three Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping titles and, most recently, team Jumping gold at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, USA, while Bengtsson took individual silver at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Also in the top ten today were Carsten-Otto Nagel (4th) who was a member of that German gold medal winning side last month, Ireland’s Billy Twomey (5th) who finished individually 11th in Kentucky, and the man who continues to wear the Rolex armband as No. 1 Rider in the World Rankings, Kevin Staut from France (6th). This truly was a line-up of champions.
Margie Engle and Indigo jumped to victory in the $100,000 Detwiler Fenton FEI World Cup Qualifier of Syracuse. Photo By: Reflections Photography.
Syracuse, NY – November 6, 2010 – The fast paced action continued in downtown Syracuse today. The featured class of the night was the $100,000 Detwiler Fenton FEI World Cup Qualifier of Syracuse presented by G&C Farm. The great US rider, Margie Engle, out rode 27 riders representing six countries to take the lionshare $100,000 purse. As she stepped into the arena as the last of three qualifiers of the jump-off, Margie Engle knew all she had to do was to keep the rails from hitting the dirt and she would leave the ring as the winner of the $100,000 Detwiler Fenton FEI World Cup Qualifier of Syracuse presented by G & C Farm. Her Dutch warmblood horse, Indigo, helped her reach that goal as the massive grey gelding gave it his all over every fence and crossed the timers clean in 39.15 seconds. “He’s such a trier. He gives it everything he has,” said Engle after her win.
Earlier this afternoon Engle also rocked the house by winning the $30, 0000 TK99 Speed Derby. Besting a field of 22 riders from five different countries was rider Margie Engle and her mare Pamina L. The pair dominated the class with a blistering clean round in 48.91 seconds. The only rider to come close to taking home the blue ribbon was the young Irish rider, Darragh Kenny, who finished second aboard Looping Star, posting a clean go in 49.220 seconds. The TK99 class is all about speed and strategy and the key to winning is having a fast, responsive horse with the ability to turn smoothly on the fly. Rails down convert to the time so riders with errors on course could still potentially win if their horse was fast. Richard Jeffery designed a challenging course that pushed riders to move forward while keeping their horses focused on the job at hand. The fifth fence on the course, a narrow white gate in shallow cups, proved to be a bogey fence, falling several times during the performance. As the class progressed the riders pushed their horses faster and faster trying to have the best time. Although Engle’s mare jumps big over every fence, Pamina L is still incredibly fast. Although there were five riders to follow the pair, including hometown favorite Beezie Madden, no one was able to best Engle’s time and she earned the win and points towards a spot in Sunday’s Syracuse Sporthorse Cup.
William Fox-Pitt (GBR), 2010 season's winner of the FEI HSBC Classics (c) Peter Nixon/FEI
Pau, 7 November – Andreas Dibowski (GER) finally achieved the CCI4* win he so deserves with an immaculate Jumping round in the most testing of conditions at a rain-soaked Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA), the final leg of the HSBC FEI Classics.
But William Fox-Pitt’s (GBR) second place on Navigator, who hit three rails, was still good enough to win him a second HSBC FEI Classics title in three years and US$150,000.
Dibowski, who has endured four runner-up spots at CCI4*s, earned a rapturous reception from an excited, if damp, French crowd. “I am really happy and excited,” he said. “After my Dressage (he was 11th), I didn’t expect to win, but everyone needs a little bit of luck at this level and today it was my day.”
Fox-Pitt was generous in defeat. “If someone had told me I’d be second at the start of this week, I’d have thought it was a dream. It’s the first time I’ve had a clear Cross-Country at Pau! And I had to stay in second place to win the HSBC FEI Classics, so I’m very relieved and pleased and pleased with my horse for coping so well.”
Leader after the Cross Country phase, William Fox-Pitt
Pau, 6 November – William Fox-Pitt (GBR) is in line for a memorable double – and a big pay cheque – having leapt into a commanding lead after Cross-Country at Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA), the final leg of the valuable HSBC FEI Classics, in which he also holds top position.
Fox-Pitt showed just why he is one of the world’s best horsemen, his magnificent round coming at the end of a dramatic afternoon’s sport in which Pierre Michelet’s (FRA) technically demanding track and the elusive optimum time of 10 minutes 35 seconds proved hugely influential.
He was only ninth after Dressage on the long-striding chestnut thoroughbred Navigator, who produced the second fastest time of the day despite taking two long routes. However, the pair survived a dramatic moment at fence 14, when the horse jumped strongly over the first of two angled houses and had to stretch over the second.
“He’s still a bit exuberant and tends to jump out of your hand,” explained Fox-Pitt, “but he’s a wonderful galloper and a lovely genuine horse.”
