DEVON, Pa.—McLain Ward on his Athens Olympic team gold medal mount Sapphire won the $75,000 Budweiser Grand Prix of Devon with the only clean round in the five horse jump-off from the starting field of 28.
Ward was first to go in the jump-off and made an incredibly tight turn from one to two, a turn two of the others also made, but it was so tight it caused the second placed Hidden Creek’s Perin, ridden by Margie Engle, to grab himself and tear off a shoe. “The inside turn was not an option,” said Ward. “With these guys going behind me, I had to do it to win.” “Ít was a difficult course,” said Ward of the course set by Olaf Petersen, the course designer for the Athens Olympics. “The jump-off was not so easy. It was a good class for the crowd.” “Perin was dead honest to jump the second fence,” said Engle of Perin’s turn from one to two. “”We got there so deep, but he’s a tryer. He has a huge heart.”
Ward’s winning time was 40.08, while Engle finished with four faults in 43.09. Pato Muente of Argentina on As Di Villagana was third, with nine faults in 50.03. “The level of riding is not the best in Argentina,” said Muente. “To be with all these guys is great. It was a good day of sport for all these people in the stands.” Laura Chapot on Little Big Man was fourth with Michael Morrissey on Crelido fifth.
Grand Prix night is always sold out well in advance, and every year people arrive between 8 and 9 a.m. to get front row seats on the ringside benches.
But this year, Devon President Wade McDevitt suggested putting up three rows of temporary bleachers on the southwest corner of the ring, uncovered, to be sold only the morning of the Grand Prix due to weather considerations. Everyone who tried to buy a seat for the Grand Prix after it was a sell-out were told that 90 bleacher seats would go on sale at 8 a.m. Thursday morning.
Indeed, the ticket office opened at 8 a.m. to a line of people, many with chairs. One man had spent the night in his car in the parking lot to be sure of a seat. The 90 tickets, at $25 apiece, went in 14 minutes.
Kenny Wheeler’s Cismont Manor Farm of Keswick, Va., owned and showed the Best Young Horse, a 2-year-old named Capital Hill, for the 32nd year in a row. “I bought him a couple of months ago from Diana Dodge, who bred him,” said Wheeler. “He has a ton of quality and he’s a beautiful mover.”
Bucky Reynolds handled the Reserve Best Young Horse, Zarrific owned by Karen P. Reed of Crozier, Va.
Scott Stewart has been Leading Hunter Rider at Devon for the past five years, and it appears he is well positioned for the future as he won all three sections of Young Hunter Under Saddle, section A with Unwritten owned by marilou Case of Flemington, N.J., section B with Sambalino owned by Gina Day of Boulder, Colo., and section C with Believe owned by Glen T. Senk of Philadelphia, Pa.
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