Most South Florida residents would wince at the thought of a hurricane, but the spectators who gathered for the $100,000 CN U.S. Open Jumper Championship cheered. This time, the hurricane was of the lanky bay variety, as Ramiro Quintana and Hurricane I stormed to the top of the class.

In the biggest win of his career so far, Quintana guided Hurricane to the top check over a stellar international starting field of 49.

The event concluded the CN Wellington Finale CSIO in Wellington, Fla., an event that included the $50,000 CN Samsung Nations Cup.

Quintana, 28, represented his home of Argentina in that Nations Cup, where the team took third place. The Irish team won the class, to the delight of their loud and vociferous cheering squad, over a young squad from Great Britain. The American team had a disappointing night under the lights, finishing fifth.

The international flavor continued in the grand prix, as Quintana dueled against two Americans, a Frenchman and a Brit in the jump-off. Riders from Canada, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Switzerland, Colombia and Venezuela dotted the order of go as well.

Jose “Pepe” Gamarra built a tough first-round course that whittled the field down to just five. An extremely tough triple combination came early in the track, at 4ABC, and dashed the hopes of many. A narrow, airy green vertical led, in a tight one-stride distance, to a massive Swedish oxer, and then a long one stride brought another airy vertical.

“The first distance was very tight to a wide oxer, and it made a lot of horses hang up over the oxer. That put them in trouble, because it was a very long distance to the third element of the combination. They were tricky distances,” Quintana said.

But Quintana was able to draw on Hurricane’s experience to conquer the combination.

“He’s just a very straightforward horse, very well schooled and trained. He’s done well with every rider he’s had,” he said.

Owner Sarah Willeman won her first grand prix on the bay Dutch Warmblood, 14, in 2001. Jeffery Welles also rode and won on him, and McLain Ward won multiple grand prix classes on him in 2003 and 2004. Quintana has had the ride for six months, since trainer Missy Clark chose him to take over the reins.

Quintana, who has brought many younger horses to the grand prix level while riding for Joe Fargis, appreciates Hurricane’s professionalism.

“It’s nice to walk the course and feel like I can be competitive because I know the horse can do it. He’s not the most naturally fast horse, but he’s got a very big step, and I can leave out strides on big gallops,” said Quintana.

And one fewer stride is how he won it. Kent Farrington and Madison had set the jump-off pace as the first in, with no faults in 41.72 seconds. Laura Chapot and the catty and fast Little Big Man had an early rail to finish with 4 faults in 42.36 seconds. And then Quintana galloped into the ring with a plan to win.

“I saw Kent’s round, and he added one stride down one line. He did seven strides, and I thought I could take advantage of that by doing the six strides in there. As it turns out, I just beat him by a fraction of a second, so that was the difference,” Quintana said. His clean round in 41.51 seconds put him in front with two left.

Herve Godignon of France and Obelix looked threatening as they galloped to the first fence, but the flashy bay came down on the back rail of the second fence. Another rail and a 44.98-second time put them fifth. Great Britain’s Ellen Whitaker, just 19, looked ready to win too, but a heartbreaking rail at the last fence left them third.

Grabbing second was a great result for Farrington, 24, and Madison. “She’s a young horse in her first year of the big grand prix classes,” said Farrington.

“I put in what I thought was a quick round, but I wanted to go clear to put that pressure on the other riders. I thought that I did leave the door open just a bit.”

Farrington and Madison also won the WEF Challenge Cup Series Round VI the week before.

The Luck Of The Irish

Quintana’s performance in the Nations Cup–four- and eight-fault rounds–helped Argentina take their second consecutive third place in the class. They were essentially competing as a three-man team, as their first to go, Federico Stzyrle, fell. Stzyrle was diagnosed with a compression fracture low in his back but is expected to recover.

But that night, no one could catch the Irish. Their anchor rider, Kevin Babington, rode to the night’s only double-clear, and they finished with a 12-fault total, well ahead of Great Britain (20). The U.S. team concluded with 35 faults.

“It was disappointing, but things were never quite hit right,” said U.S. Chef d’Equipe Frank Chapot. “On form, it should have gone a lot better, but that’s show jumping. I think we couldn’t have done it better as far as picking the team, and they didn’t ride badly, but it was just that nothing worked.”

Beezie Madden and Conquest had the best night of the Americans, with a four-fault and clean round. Lauren Hough and Casadora had an uncharacteristic stop at the triple combination and a rail in the first round, giving them 12 faults, but rebounded in the second to collect just 1 time fault. Kim Frey and Couletto K. James posted five- and 13-fault rounds. Laura Kraut and Anthem felled three rails in the first round.

Great Britain held the lead with 6 faults after the first round, with a clean from Michael Whitaker on Portofino, 1 time fault from Robert Maguire on Mr. Cawley, and 5 faults from Ellen Whitaker on AK Locarno. Vicky Young’s seven-fault trip on Royal Dane was their drop score. Ireland lurked just behind with 8 faults.

But in the second round, the Irish stepped up the pressure. Darragh Kerins repeated his four-fault performance on Galaad du Murier, and Conor Swail put in a fault-free round on Lavaro. When Babington clinched his second clear go of the night, victory was theirs.

“I had a silly knockdown in the second round,” said Michael Whitaker. “But really, the way the Irish were going, there was no one going to catch them. They came out and gave us a very, very good class.”

Michael Whitaker led a young team–with his niece Ellen as well–to the second place. They even flew all their horses to Florida to compete for two weeks. “I fancied a change. It was nice to get away, and the weather is certainly different!” said Michael.

An Irish Mixture

The Irish, as they have in years past, put together various riders based in the U.S. and Irish riders on catch rides for the Wellington CSIO.

Babington has been based in New Jersey for years, while Kerins rides out of New York. Jennifer Crooks, who was born in the United States to Irish parents, lives in Seattle, Wash., and trains with the Irish chef d’equipe, Eddie Macken. Swail resides in Dublin, Ireland, but he spent the entire Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, riding for Andre Dignelli of Heritage Farm. For the Nations Cup, he rode Lavaro, a junior jumper owned by Natalie Johnson, a Heritage student.

Babington’s double-clear was all the more impressive since he wasn’t riding his veteran Carling King, his partner for the 2004 Olympics and 2002 World Equestrian Games. Carling King was recovering from a stone bruise, so Babington turned to It’s Morado, an amateur-owner jumper owned by his student, Kelly Maloney.

Maloney just took a new job as a professor at Duke University (N.C.). “Her schedule doesn’t allow her to come down on weekends, so she gave me the horse for the last three weeks of the circuit, and I’ll show him for the better part of this year,” said Babington.

Babington took the responsibility of anchoring the team with a wry sense of humor.

“Eddie [Macken] said to me earlier in the day, ‘All I expect out of you is two clear rounds,’ so I knew what I had to do. But really, there was a little bit of pressure. I was pretty confident going into the second round, and then he jumped the first six jumps even better than he had in the first round, so I felt great,” he said.

Swail’s lovely second clean round over the tough course on Lavaro was an accomplishment. “He goes every week in the low junior jumpers, so this was a big step up for him. He’s got a lot of quality, and he was fantastic tonight,” Swail said.

He admitted that he’d had Lavaro’s lack of grand prix experience in mind. “I was little concerned, for sure. But I ride the horse a lot, and I knew him quite well. I’d only shown him twice, though,” said Swail. “For sure it was a big track tonight–the biggest we’ve seen so far here. So I was delighted with how he jumped.”

Crooks, 31, was representing Ireland for the first time ever. “The pressure was on to be good, and I was, so I was very happy with it. This is definitely the biggest moment of my riding career,” she said.

Originally from Princeton, N.J., Crooks moved to Seattle for college, then married professional rider Mike Crooks and settled there.

Crooks and S.F. Cassandra picked up just 4 jumping faults and 1 time fault over the first round, but a bad overreach the gray mare suffered in accomplishing that kept them from returning for the second round. “It was absolutely great; it was a wonderful way to start my international career,” said Crooks. “She’s a great mare. Eddie found her for me and she’s one of those horses that when the pressure is on, she steps up her game.”

Crooks, a mother of three, credits her husband with helping to get her to the grand prix level. She was competing in the adult amateur jumpers when she
first met him and now is a consistent contender at Spruce Meadows (Alta.) in the open divisions.

Macken couldn’t have been happier with his team’s performance in a class, which has become considerably more competitive in its three-year history.

“Every Nations Cup is important, for sure. This is our first win in Palm Beach, and it’s been something we’ve been trying to win for a few years now,” said Macken.

“Now that we’ve done it, we’ll have to try and defend it next year.”