Alfano Turns It On At The Devon Derby

Sunday, Apr. 28, 2024

Jen Alfano finished out her trip to Devon, Pa., in perfect style: by riding her long-time partner Jersey Boy to the top of the $25,000 Chronicle of the Horse/USHJA International Hunter Derby title.

Alfano scored the highest raw score of the day aboard the SBS Farms entry, (93.5) to edge out Maggie Jayne on Devon’s leading mare Francesca. Alfano’s former ride, Rock Star, (Louise Serio) earned third and scored the highest handy round of the day.

PUBLISHED

June 6, 2010
4:27 pm

WORDS BY

Mollie Bailey

Jen Alfano finished out her trip to Devon, Pa., in perfect style: by riding her long-time partner Jersey Boy to the top of the $25,000 Chronicle of the Horse/USHJA International Hunter Derby title.

“My horse was really on today right from the start,” said Alfano, Buffalo, N.Y. “When he’s on you can do anything with him.”

For Alfano that meant finding the tightest turns around Kenny Krome’s handy course, exploding over all the biggest options on course and showing a giant hand gallop to the last big oxer.

“They said they wanted to emphasize the hand gallop jump, so I tried to really go,” she said.

After a long 10 days of showing, 29 horses stayed an extra day in Devon to contest the sole class held today, Sunday June 6. The start list read like a who’s who of this season’s top East Coast hunters and derby stars. Kelley Farmer tacked up a full dance card, and Pony Lane Farm fielded so many entries (8), Maggie Jayne had to recruit her brother from the jumper ring to pilot one of her normal rides. Serio, still glowing from a huge win at the $50,000 Chronicle of the Horse/USHJA International Hunter Derby in Wellington, Fla., in April, qualified a second mount, Joy Ride, for the second round. And young amateur Alise Oken piloted the venerable Take Away to an eventual seventh.

Neither the inviting classic course nor the relatively straightforward handy caused many problems for the riders and their mounts, most of whom had been showing over largely similar jumps in the same ring all week. The handy course required riders to walk through a relatively narrow gap between two split rail fences and included a trot fence over a small natural log, neither of which caused major problems.

Devon’s derby concludes the 2009-2010 season, and Jersey Boy will find himself firmly atop the standings for the second year running. Alfano made a priority of campaigning the now-8-year-old in the classes since their inception, and she has found a willing partner in the chestnut she once considered a jumper prospect. Together the pair won, most recently, the class in Ocala (Fla.) and finished second at last year’s $100,000 ASG Software Solutions/USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Alfano and Jersey Boy will make an extra trip to Lexington this year: first for the Finals, and then again for the Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games, where she has been invited to ride in the USHJA Derby Demonstration.

Top 12 results follow, for full results check out ryegate.com. Want to see more Devon action? Check out the news from the $100,000 Grand Prix of Devon, as well as spectacular photos from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. While you’re at it, get all the news and photos from junior weekend.