San Juan Capistrano, Calif., April 17
After a string of four grand prix wins in a row at the HITS Thermal Desert Circuit (Calif.) last month, Lucy Davis found herself in a familiar situation as she led the victory gallop for the $50,000 Royal Champion Grand Prix aboard Nemo 119 at the Blenheim Spring Classic III.
Only a few hours before the grand prix, Davis earned another blue ribbon for the 1.35 meter classic with Hannah. Since she won her first grand prix class last May, the 18-year-old from Los Angeles has proven she is as accurate a competitor as riders with years of experience in top competition.
Last week, Davis went double clear in the $40,000 Blenheim Spring Classic II Grand Prix and took home a check for her sixth-placed finish. This week, only three competitors managed to go clear in the first round from the starting field of 30, and Davis was the second to return. She knew she’d have to make a run for it after her friend, Canadian Samantha Buirs and Total Touch, went double clear.
As Davis and Nemo 119 entered the ring, the rambunctious gelding took a few characteristic bucks before the pair crossed the timers, but from there on it was all business. Davis managed to shave more than 1.5 seconds off Buir’s time by taking sharper turns and galloping between fences, as her trainer Markus Beerbaum gave instructions from outside the ring.
The last attempt at the jump-off was by Australian Harley Brown and Angelli. Their effort was solid, but the big-strided gelding couldn’t beat the pace set by Davis, and they had a knockdown at the final oxer.
“I thought [Nemo 119] was going too slow at the beginning, so I really wanted to take a shot at that one,” Davis said of an upright vertical in the jump-off that rolled back to an oxer with a long approach. “I couldn’t really get him back enough to make it anything but a 180-degree turn, so I was just kind of trying to turn as hard as I could.”
The inviting but technically-demanding course was set by Olaf Petersen Jr., and it featured challenges such as a double and triple combination, a triple bar, a liverpool and an open water obstacle. The faults were evenly distributed across the jumps.
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“His courses have all the tricks in there, and they’re pretty technical,” Davis said, who only last month won the $200,000 Lamborghini Grand Prix designed by Petersen at HITS Thermal. “A lot of people walk [his courses] and say, ‘Oh it looks nice,’ and it never looks easy, but it always rides harder than it looks.”
Runner-up Buirs agreed with Davis.
“There are all these bogey places and traps, but the thing I like most is they’re not out to kill you, they’re out to get the better of you,” Buirs said. “When it’s a do-or-die course it isn’t fun, but [Petersen’s] courses are challenging, and that’s what keeps the fun in the sport.”
Up next for Davis is the Del Mar National Horse Show (Calif.) in May, where she will aim to qualify for the $100,000 Grand Prix of Del Mar, open to the top 30 competitors of the $25,000 Surfside Grand Prix.
Top 12 Results: Horse/Rider/Owner
1. Nemo 119/Lucy Davis/Old Oak Farm (0-0, 49.447)
2. Total Touch/Samantha Buirs/Samantha Buirs (0-0, 50.924)
3. Angelli/Harley Brown/Paige Harryman (0-4, 51.147)
4. Katie Riddle/John McConnell/Rancho Corazon LLC (1)
5. Capone 1/Kyle King/Corrine Super (4)
6. Cantano/Susan Hutchison/El Dorado 29 (4)
7. Cash 51/Saer Coulter/Copernicus Stables LLC (4)
8. Xel Ha/Michelle Parker/Tula Pinnella (4)
9. Gaja 20/Jocelyn Neff/Donna Neff (5)
10. Zico 13/Tammy Chipko/Tammy Chipko (7)
11. Bristol/Rusty Stewart/Grey Fox Farms (7)
12. Archie Bunker/Hap Hansen/Linda I. Smith (8)
