Let's Fly Finds His Wings In Charlotte

This young partnership outlasts the competition over three rounds.

While Double H Farm’s Let’s Fly didn’t win Saturday night’s puissance class, his easy clearance of the six-foot wall should have provided a hint to his rider, Rodrigo Pessoa, that he was ready for the $450,000 Grand Prix of Charlotte.

So after Let’s Fly successfully flew over all but one fence in the three-round competition, the highlight of the Charlotte Jumper Classic, April 10-12, in Charlotte, N.C., Pessoa clinched the $112,500 paycheck. “This was a nice test for him,” said Pessoa, of his 10-year-old Hanoverian.

Pessoa described the Steve Stephens-designed courses as nice building blocks. “[Steve] was really progressive in his building today. The first course was nice and a little bit soft, if anything,” said Pessoa. “He got up to the second course and made it a little bit harder.”

The first round, which attracted 23 starters, included three one-stride double combinations. Stephens noted that one test on the course was the line from fence 7, a triple bar, three strides to a substantial oxer. The line required riders to commit to three strides due to the size and width of both fences, and combined, the fences fell six times.

In the second round, Stephens upped the ante for the 15 qualified riders. He added a triple combination that led to a precariously set plank vertical three strides later. The triple bar also remained from the first round, and riders were now asked to navigate a tall vertical afterward.

Just three riders mastered both tests to move on to the jump-off: Pessoa, McLain Ward on Rothchild, and Karen Cudmore on Southern Pride.

“I would have liked to have put in a clear [in the jump-off] to put on some pressure,” said Pessoa, who went first. “But I thought my horse jumped well through the jump-off. The time was really short, but I was pleased with the performance of the horse, regardless if he was going to win or not.”

Pessoa has been riding Let’s Fly for less than a year and is happy with the way he’s been coming along. In addition to winning in Charlotte, they also won the $100,000 Green Cove Springs CSI-W (Fla.) in January.

“He’s going to have a couple weeks off then he’ll go back to Europe. His next show is in Valencia, Spain,” noted Pessoa.

Cudmore, Omaha, Neb., tackled the jump-off after Pessoa, but her efforts for a conservative clear failed to materialize.

“I had a very slow jump-off,” said Cudmore, who’s well known for her speedy efforts aboard her veteran partner Southern Pride, an 11-year-old Holsteiner stallion. “My plan was to go triple clean at that point. Once I got too slow there was no catching up. I ended up having a lot of time faults with the tight time, but I was pleased with my horse. In the second round he was flawless; I’m very happy with him.”

Ward, Brewster, N.Y., and Rothchild were the last to go in the jump-off. With an impressive winning streak already established this winter, Ward was certainly a betting favorite. But after a rail fell on course his slower time relegated him to second. Nevertheless, he was thrilled with the 8-year-old’s performance.