Saugerties, N.Y.—Sept. 7

The third time is hopefully the charm for California-based Hope Glynn. She made the long trek to HITS-On-The-Hudson hoping to better her past placings in the $500,000 Diamond Mills Hunter Prix, and after Round 2, she’s well on her way.

Aboard Emma Waldfogel’s King’s Peak, Glynn won the second round, bettering her fourth place from Round 1 on Friday. The top 25 from the first two rounds jump again in Rounds 3 and 4 on Sunday. They won’t carry their scores into those rounds, however. They start with a clean slate, but jump in reverse order of their Round 1 and 2 standings.

“This is my third year, and hopefully each year I’m working my way up to a better position!” she said. “The first year I was able to make the cut to the top 25. It was raining during the final round and I think I got a little nervous and rode a little conservatively. Last year I finished sixth overall, so I’m hoping I’m continuing up the ladder because I don’t have any weather excuses because this week has been about as perfect as we could have hoped for!”

Glynn found the second round course to be more suited to the warmblood of unrecorded breeding. “There were more left leads today, so that was a benefit for my horse,” she explained. “I was more relaxed than yesterday. I went out there today and felt more comfortable cantering up and down the hill because he was a little less fresh and it wasn’t as late in the day, so I don’t think I had as much time to think about it and get nervous.”

When Glynn first saw King’s Peak in March, she knew he was special, but didn’t have a client who could buy him until she suggested it to Waldfogel.

A former jumper to the 1.20-meter level, the gelding also spends time with his owner in the junior hunter ring and recently won a hunter derby with Glynn.

“He loves this job and he’s an easy, good horse,” said Glynn. “There’s nothing tricky about him. My life is easy; luckily we don’t have to trade horses!”

Tracy Fenney also made a trek from her base in Flower Mound, Texas, but she made it worth it by finishing in second place with MTM Codec.

The 10-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding of unrecorded breeding was imported in June. He had previously done jumpers, but Fenney has found he’s taken to his new job, even after just a week of showing. “I don’t know, when I go in the jumper ring tomorrow, it might be a whole different story!” she joked.

Glynn’s fellow Californian Jenny Karazissis also made the journey to New York and she slotted into third place with Kelly Straeter’s Undeniable, an Oldenburg of unrecorded breeding.

“I’ve kind of set goals along the way,” she said. “He’s young—he turned 7 in April. I just felt like we’ve tested him a bit in the derbies and he’s so brave and he just got better and better. I knew what to expect here and I really felt like he could handle it.”

Carrying The Pace

Corinne Milbury is also hoping to improve upon her 11th place in last year’s $250,000 HITS Hunter Prix.

She topped round 2 with her partner of three years, Kavalier, a 10-year-old warmblood of unrecorded breeding.

“I got my pace going right away and just kind of carried it around the whole thing,” said the 19-year-old. “My horse helped me 100 percent—I almost messed up, but he sort of took over control at times and helped me out a lot.”

Milbury, Boston, Mass., prefers the derby-like format of the class, in which riders got to canter out of the ring, up a hill and down over a bank.

“I love the derbies,” she said. “It’s just so much more free and relaxing and there’s more jumps to kind of figure your pace out.”

She’s looking forward to riding her final round tomorrow in the Grand Prix ring with more atmosphere and spectators. “I’m mostly excited to ride my horse in it because he gets really excited. I think he has a lot of fun with it,” she said.

Miranda Scarpone and Rosso Rossini put in a solid trip to finish the day in second place.

Scarpone, 21, Morristown, N.J., has also been partnered with the 13-year-old Bavarian Warmblood (Rosso Di Sera—Sam Salina) for three years.

She rode him once at a show as a favor to his owner and knew it was the right match. “From that moment, we were perfect for each other,” she said. “I’ve never sat on a horse who was more perfect. I always call him my once in a lifetime horse. He reads my mind before I’m able to ask him something and he was just perfect out there today.”

For full results, visit the HITS website.