OCALA, FL.—FEB. 16, 2007— HITS has been very, very good to Sergio Campos. Aboard his Brazilian-bred mare Shakira do Jacare, Campos yesterday captured his third (count ‘em) consecutive Grand Prix victory, winning the $25,000 Ariat Grand Prix, among the first of the A-rated classes of the Ocala Winter Classic.
On Jan. 28 Campos, aboard Shakira, won the $25,000 Footing Authority™ Grand Prix, only to come back one week later and secure a second $25,000 GP class, this time on the Rae Kennedy-owned Zizou,
After navigating the first round of yesterday’s course designed by Kenneth Krome, Campos joined four other teams in a thrilling jump off characterized by the need for speed. “The horses in the jump off are probably the fastest in the country,” said Campos of Serval and Centus 4, ridden by Aaron Vale, Mianta with Callan Solem in the irons, and Gun Du Desfi ridden by Libby McKinney. “Aaron is always fast with any horse, so both of his trips put me on my toes,” added Campos, “and Mianta won the same class two times last year. It’s always hard to beat her time.” But beat it they did. With a time allowed of 50 seconds, Campos and Shakira stopped the clock at and astounding 38.807. Solem and Mianta took second while Vale and Serval placed third.
A hot topic this week at HITS has been the brand new footing-a state-of-the-art polymer-coated synthetic-in the renovated arena just unveiled this week. The untried surface apparently played a part in the outcome of the class. “One of the main factors was the footing,” said Campos of how the course rode. “I heard other riders talking about the footing, no one was sure what to expect. But truth was the footing was amazing. But I think a lot of riders went in and took too much caution and ended up making mistakes. I just went in and rode normal. I didn’t change anything.”
It didn’t hurt that Shakira is at the top of her form. “She always jumps good here in Ocala, She loves the big dirt arenas,” said Campos. “But I changed a lot of things about her training in the last year.” The mare, who was bred at Campos’s family ranch in his native Brazil, has always been “too nervous and got too hot,” said Campos. So last fall she began working with “a cowboy,” Paulo Miranda, who does round-pen work and uses horse-whisperer-type techniques to help quiet and focus her. “Now, I don’t ride her at all during the week. I only ride her in the GP on Thursday and Sunday and the rest of the week she works in the round-pen,” said Campos, “Paulo has been helping me a lot.”
Capping off the perfect day of competition, Campos also won the Young Jumper Final 7&8 Year old division with the 7-year-old French gelding Monkey du Parc, owned by Dianna Rodolpho, and was second in the YJC 6-year-old final with Nut des Forets, owned by Miranda.
Campos, who runs the Longwood Equestrian Center just outside Orlando, is looking forward to continued competition at HITS for the next several weeks. He is also preparing to show two new horses recently acquired by Longwood via sponsor Mill Creek Stables of Cambridge, Ontario: Kaiser de la Coeur, a 9-year-old gelding who has been on the Grand Prix circuit in Europe with Rodrigo Pessoa (Team Pessoa is also a Longwood sponsor) and Mill Creek Sancho, a 7-year-old that will begin showing at Grand Prix level this summer.
Flashpoint Media Services, based in Harrodsburg, KY., is a comprehensive public relations firm specializing in the equestrian sports. For additional information contact Cynthia Grisolia at (347) 423-7322, [email protected] or Robbi Meisel (859) 734-3713, [email protected]
###
You must be logged in to post a comment.