Barry Bonds just might pass Babe Ruth’s home run total this fall. Hap Hansen, meanwhile, is chasing a remarkable goal of his own: his 100th grand prix win. He won No. 94 when he took the blue in the $40,000 World Cup qualifier in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. The class was one of the featured events of the Oaks Blenheim Fall Festival, held Sept. 15-19.

Hansen and Nancy Markwell’s His Horse came to the ring seventh in the order. It was already clear by then that the time over Guilherme Jorge’s technical course would be a problem, as the first two horses had exceeded the time allowed of 78 seconds.

“I knew the time was tight,” said Hansen, of Encinitas, Calif. “Fortunately that horse has a great big stride. We just came off the Masters at Spruce Meadows [Atla.], where we did the speed classes. I knew he was game to go quickly and efficiently around the turns and leave out some steps a lot of places other people didn’t.”

Hansen jumped clear within the time, something no other rider could manage.

One time fault apiece meant that Liz Denny and Joie Gatlin shared second place, and Hansen won without a jump-off.

The covered arena at Oaks Blenheim is 25 feet longer and 15 feet wider than the Thomas & Mack arena where the 2005 World Cup Finals will be contested. It’s still not a huge space, however, and the jumps come up in a hurry. “You don’t have any time to make an adjustment,” Hansen said. “You’ve got to make everything happen so quickly. The horse handled it fine. I think it was a lot more difficult for me.”

Jorge will design the 2005 World Cup Finals, and he wanted to give riders a hint of what they could expect next spring. “I don’t want to be too nice–jump one thing here, and then get [to the World Cup] and get a totally different competition,” said the young Brazilian. “It’s very important for the group here that they’ve got an idea of what they’re going to face in Las Vegas.”

A Worthwhile Addiction

Debra Van Horn won the low junior/amateur-owner jumper classic on the international field. Van Horn, a pharmacist in Oakland, Calif., took the top prize with her Thoroughbred gelding Fletcher, outrunning a huge field of 50 entries.

“I had to stay with him, keep tight turns, and ask him to gallop when it was time to gallop,” said Van Horn, who trains with Gry and Duncan McFarlane.

Van Horn has had Fletcher for three years but hasn’t had as much chance to ride him as she’d like. “I hurt my back right after I bought him,” she said. “I’ve had a spotty showing season with him the last couple of years.”

Her trainers’ instructions for the jump-off were very straightforward. “Get him where he could jump and then sit still,” said Van Horn, smiling. “That’s tough, because he has quite a thrust. I do tend to get jumped loose.”

Van Horn is one of those mainstays of the horse industry who is addicted to everything equine. “When I was a little kid, I just loved horses,” she said. “My dad used to bring me horse statues as presents. I had over 100.”

At age 10 she started training in her native Minnesota with the legendary Marie Long, and, save for a break for college, she has been riding ever since.

Los Angeles junior Paris Sellon and That’s Remarkable won the modified junior/amateur-owner jumper classic. Sellon, 12, who trains with Francie Steinwedell-Carvin, Dick Carvin and Susie Schroer, did not really expect to win since she’s only been riding the 6-year-old jumper for a couple of months.

Her trainers told her to “get to the jumps quickly and then slow down,” Sellon said. “I did that, and it worked!”

Sellon’s day was not done just yet. She was about to get on her first of two hunters in the large junior, 15 and under, section. “It’s nice that I have a break so I can kind of relax,” she said. “If I had to get on right away, I’d feel really freaked and hyped up. It’s hard to settle down.”

Sellon enjoys showing the jumpers largely because she need not worry quite so much about little mistakes. “Jumpers are fun,” she said. “If you miss, it’s not like a really big deal. If you miss in the hunters, it’s all over.”

Dick Carvin also worries about missing, though he did little of it at Oaks Blenheim. Carvin showed Sellon’s Back In The Game in the second year green division, earning four blue ribbons on the way to the championship.

“I’m actually a little bit nervous going in on him, because I haven’t been in the hunter ring in a while,” he said. “It has to be at least eight or nine years. It makes it all exciting again.”

Carvin found Back In The Game during the Florida winter circuit. The beautiful gelding is only 6, and still a bit green. Green or not, Carvin and his wife thought he’d be an excellent first junior hunter for Sellon. “He’s just got all the quality, and that’s what we were looking for,” said Carvin.

Sellon’s large pony, Newsworthy, had a very long stride. This meant that his rhythm in the ring was slow and steady. That’s very much the way Back In The Game goes; the difference is merely one of scale. “It’s a familiar ride for her, just in horse form,” Carvin said. “She had so much success with Newsworthy with that big, slow stride.”

Despite having been a professional for many years, Carvin has never ridden in the East Coast fall indoor shows. Back In The Game is qualified for all of them, and Carvin is looking forward to the campaign. “Nerves are good,” he said, laughing. “I’m looking forward to feeling those nerves.”

A Mature Bachelor

Jenny Karazissis rode Jennifer Porter’s Bachelor #2 to the championship in the regular working hunters. The black, Hanoverian gelding has filled out in the last year and finally achieved his full growth.

“He has physically changed a lot, and that’s why everything has come together,” said Karazissis. “He’s been champion in the four-foot the last three horse shows. I’m extremely pleased with him.”

The Calabasas, Calif., trainer never rushed the 9-year-old gelding. “It’s nice to have a horse that can go on the road all the time,” she said, “but I think he needed a little bit of slow going, to let him fully mature physically. He’s just wonderful.”

Katie Taylor racked up a perfect score in the large juniors, 16-17. She won all five classes aboard Iwasaki & Reilly’s Small Town, a catch-ride for trainer Mike Henaghan. “My sister was showing him in the professional divisions, and they asked me at Huntington Beach to come try him,” said Taylor, who has had the ride only a month. “I did the hunter finals on him. He’s really fun.”

Erin Duffy picked up a catch ride of her own, showing Brenda Miller’s ‘Round Midnight at the behest of trainer Mark Bone. “He’s really, really straightforward with a great brain,” said Duffy, a professional from north San Diego County.

Duffy has done well in the first year classes this summer, but it’s in the special events that she’s really shone. She and ‘Round Midnight won a $10,000 hunter challenge in August and came right back to do it again at Oaks Blenheim in the $10,000 Nutrena Open Hunter Finals.

The Nutrena class was held on a huge grass field, which gave course designer Scott Starnes plenty of scope for his imagination. “This is so much fun out here. You can really get a bit of a hunt going, a little bit of a gallop,” Duffy said. “The jumps are impressive, not the same jumps that you jump every week.”

There was also a $10,000 Nutrena BEST class for the juniors and amateurs, in which Carly Ow-Wing came out on top. Ow-Wing, 16, rode her Sierra to the win.

“I love her,” said Ow-Wing of the little, Dutch-bred, chestnut mare. “I’ve had her since she was 4 or 5, and we’ve taught each other everything.”

Ow-Wing, who trains with Joie Gatlin and Morley Abey, will be making her first trip this fall to the Pennsylvania National, Capital Challenge (Md.), and the other East Coast indoor shows. “My favorite part about showing is being able to show her,” she said. “She could do anything, and I’d never be mad at her.”