A big track makes for just one clean round.
The spectators at the $100,000 Wachovia Securities American Gold Cup CSI-W got a little reminder that patience is a virtue.
They’d watched 20 horses jump around the tough course, and the best score was 4 faults. Steve Stephens’ course had gotten the best of horse after horse, with rails falling like rain.
But the last five horses to go turned the featured class of the Wachovia Securities American Gold Cup,
Sept. 19-23 in Moreland Hills, Ohio, into a nailbiter.
Anne Kursinski and Lorenzo, as the 21st to go, carefully worked their way through all of the challenges, with the elegant, bay gelding jumping thoughtfully. The crowd went wild when they crossed the finish timers with all of the rails in the cups, and even the announcement of 1 time fault to their name couldn’t dim Kursinski’s enthusiasm at clearing the course.
“He did it easy. I’m sorry I had a time fault, but I’m delighted that we were clear. I wasn’t sure if I was close to the time, but I was just trying to clear the fences!” Kursinski said.
“I thought the course was very imposing. It was big, and it was technical. I didn’t think there’d be more than one or two clean. It was a really big course, but the horses jumped it quite well,” she said.
Kursinski’s lead would be brief, however. Two horses later, Mario Deslauriers and Paradigm put in an elegant trip over the demanding course, belying its difficulty, to post the first clean round within the time.
“Nobody was clear [when I went], so I think you get a little more intense in the schooling area,” said Deslauriers. “When we heard that Anne went with just a time fault, I decided to leave out the stride from the liverpool oxer to fence 6.”
The plan worked, as Deslauriers finished fault-free.
He wasn’t able to breathe easy, though, since McLain Ward and the talented young Phillipa rounded out the field. A striking chestnut mare, Phillipa wowed the crowd with her phenomenal jumping efforts.
She and Ward worked their way around the course and landed with a clear score off a big effort at the triple combination.
Phillipa decided to celebrate a bit, kicking out and playing. But there was one more fence to jump, and her antics interfered slightly with their approach to the final oxer. Phillipa kicked out in mid-air and ticked the front rail off, robbing the crowd of a jump-off, but keeping the excitement level high.
Ward and Phillipa placed fourth.
Charlie Jayne, 21, rode Urbanus to the fastest four-fault round to claim third behind Deslauriers and Kursinski.
“This is probably my biggest placing so far,” Jayne said. “I’ve had an awesome summer with Urbanus. We’ve done nine grand prix classes, and he jumped seven of the first rounds clean. He’s really come along this year. I got him two years ago as an 8-year-old and showed him a little bit in the high amateurs. I became a professional last year and moved him up to the grand prix level.”
Deslauriers, Bromont, Que., and Paradigm have had a great year together. Three weeks before the Gold Cup, they won the $50,000 Grey Goose Vodka CSI-W at the Hampton Classic (N.Y.). Added to their Gold Cup win, they’ve got a good jump on World Cup qualifying.
“He’s good indoors, and I’ve had a good start, so we’ll see,” Deslauriers said.
Paradigm’s results aren’t bad for a horse Deslauriers took in trade three years ago. Then 10, Paradigm had only shown locally in small classes in the Vancouver, B.C., area with Mark Laskin.
“He’s a very nice horse to have in the barn,” said Deslauriers. “He’s very strong-minded, but I think that’s also what makes him good in the ring. There’s nothing he won’t try and do. Even if you’re in trouble, he’ll go.”
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Eliza Shuford placed sixth in the CSI-W on B.C.O. Olymp after a toppled back rail at the triple bar. But two days before, she’d had all the glory, topping a four-horse jump-off to win the $25,000 Welcome Stake with the only double-clear round out of 42 starters.
Prins Is The King
The high junior/amateur-owner jumper classic, held under the lights on Saturday evening, proved to be a grueling test.
Stephens built an imposing track, and only Melissa Rudershausen and Prins kept all of the rails in the cups out of a field of 31.
Rudershausen went late in the order and discovered that watching the first few jump wasn’t helpful.
“I watched about five go, and then I had to walk away. I got a little intimidated,” she said.
But she knew she had a reliable partner in Prins.
“I’ve had Prins for four years now, and he’s very enthusiastic about his job. He’s the most careful horse in the world—it’s just keeping him under wraps the whole time. He saved my butt in a few places!” she said.
Problem areas on the course included a difficult bending eight strides from an oxer to a tight one-stride of verticals, and a last line of a big square oxer, four long strides to an oxer-vertical one-stride with a short distance inside and a plank vertical as the second element.
“It was big, and long, and very technical. I think the last line, everyone was really worried about that panel,” Rudershausen said. “But I just stuck to my plan, and it worked out.
“I just sat up in my stirrups and prayed to God. I really didn’t imagine I’d be the only clean,” she added. “After five or six had gone after me, I started thinking, ‘I might not have to jump off. How nice would that be!’ I was praying we didn’t have to jump off because I was exhausted after that first round.”
Rudershausen, 20, attends Rollins College (Fla.), but is taking this year off to concentrate on riding.
“Prins is 15, and I really wanted to use his last year well,” she said.
From Kennett Square, Pa., Rudershausen cut her jumper teeth in the pony jumper ring and won quite a bit with her Goldbug.
“The year 2002 was my big pony jumper year. Then I went to the children’s jumpers. After I moved up to the low juniors, I kind of got stuck there with some bad horses for two years. Then I got Prins, and with him I moved from the lows to the highs and have done a few grand prix classes,” she said.
Rudershausen trains with Sergio Campos, but he wasn’t at the Gold Cup.
“I’m on my own. I train myself when Sergio isn’t here. I have lessons and tune-ups when he’s around, but other than that I’m on my own. I’ve had Prins for so long that we have a really good partnership,” she said.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever have another horse like him,” she added. “He’s a jerk in the barn, and he’s a jerk outside the ring, but he’s golden in the ring.”
Rudershausen also takes care of her own horses, except when her mother, Andra, pitches in at shows. “Usually my boyfriend sets fences, but he had to go to a wedding this weekend,” she said.
The Professor Gets It Done
Jeanne Hobbs enjoys her rides on another veteran, Montrachet. And while Montrachet might be 21, he shows no signs of slowing down, as he and Hobbs cruised to the win in the low junior/amateur-owner jumper classic.
“He wasn’t so careful today—not as careful as I would have liked him to be, so I didn’t go as fast as I normally would have in the jump-off. I felt like I left the door open a little bit. I was a nervous wreck watching everybody else go, so I finally quit watching,” she said.
 Up To Code Sets The Standard
“It’s very rewarding. It’s been a long time coming,” Allison Stawarz said of her success in the adult amateur division. Now 30, Stawarz just started showing three years ago.
ADVERTISEMENT“I never really showed a lot when I was younger. I groomed for a number of barns for about 10 years,” she said. “I had to finish school first and get a job. It was a long time. I didn’t have my first horse until three years ago. It’s very new, and I feel lucky. But it’s definitely worth the wait. I got to take care of lots of other people’s horses, so it’s fun to have a couple of my own.” And at the Wachovia Securities American Gold Cup, Stawarz’s long years of hard work paid off in spades as she and Up To Code topped the adult amateur jumper classic. Up To Code, or “Cody,” is a 7-year-old Irish Warmblood. Stawarz started showing Cody last summer, and their first show together was at the 2006 Upperville Horse Show (Va.). This year at Upperville, they won the adult amateur jumper classic. “He’s perfect; he has an old mind. He’s simple. Sometimes you forget he’s only 7. He’s a typical Irishman,” she said. Cody lives with Kursinski in Frenchtown, N.J., and Stawarz travels there from her home in Morgantown, W.Va., as often as she can. “I try to make it up there as many weekends as I can, and I fly to meet them at shows. It’s worth the commute,” she said. Stawarz works as a mechanical engineer and a project manager for a construction company. She plans to spend another year in the adult amateur division with Cody and then think about moving up to the amateurs. “I don’t want to rush him into anything,” she said. |
Montrachet and Hobbs, of Pinehurst, N.C., have done well this year, earning the low amateur-owner jumper circuit championship at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.) and the championship at the Fidelity Jumper Classic (Mass.) in August.
“I’ve had him four years, and I know him like the back of my hand. I know exactly what I can and can’t do on him,” Hobbs said. “He’s the professor. You definitely have to negotiate the course because carefulness has never been his forté, but he gets the job done all of the time.”
Hobbs bought Montrachet from Judy Garofalo, who rode him at the grand prix level.
“He’s taught a lot of riders how to ride. He’s been jumping grand prix since he was about 6, I believe. He was my first grand prix horse. He’s gotten older, but he loves to show. We try not to leave him at home. He likes to go around and see people at the horse show,” said Hobbs.
Hobbs, 21, is a sophomore at North Carolina State University studying textile design, marketing and fashion—skills she hopes to use in the horse show industry in the future.
Getting In The Groove
While Hobbs and Montrachet have a long history together, Sasha Bak-Tur is just getting to know High Society. They’ve only been together since July, but that didn’t stop them from claiming the win in the Gold Cup’s children’s jumper classic and the division championship.
“We’re just getting in the groove of everything, so this was a much-needed win,” said Bak-Tur. “We’ve had problems turning in the past, with it either being too abrupt or going past the turn, but today I had an amazing warm-up and it all worked.”
Bak-Tur, 17, bought High Society from Ralph Caristo. The 7-year-old, bay mare had been competing in the Young Jumper classes.“I’ve never really felt a connection with a horse like I feel with her. I love mares,” she said. “She’s taught me to be patient. And she’s younger, so I have to work with her to get the job done instead of just being taken there by a horse who knows it all.”
But that lack of experience together didn’t stop Bak-Tur from taking a chance that won her the class. She left a stride out of the last line of the jump-off in a daring move.
“I saw someone in the adult class leave the stride out, but they had it down. I’m pretty confident about leaving strides out on her, and when I landed after the first oxer, I saw it was possible and went for it. I knew she could do it,” she said.
Bak-Tur, New York, N.Y., grew up riding with Norman Dello Joio and Judy Richter, but has been training with Darragh Kerins for the past few years. She went right from the short stirrup division to the pony jumpers, and then on to the children’s jumpers.
Molly Sorge
