aster and faster was the name of the game in the $75,000 Budweiser Grand Prix of Syracuse CSI-W. And in the end, Michael Whitaker and Insul Tech Portofino proved fastest, taking the top check during the Syracuse Invitational Sport-horse Tournament, Nov. 2-5 in Syracuse, N.Y.

“She jumped really good in the first round–I don’t think she touched a jump,” Whitaker said. “And then, the jump-off course really suited me, so I thought I had a chance. There were quite a few turns–she’s good at the turns, but she’s not actually that good at galloping long distances. I thought I must have been close [to the fastest] because everything came up well and everything I tried to do went well.”

Chris Kappler had led off the five-horse jump-off with a clear go in 39.74 seconds riding VDL Oranta, but the big gray mare’s long stride and slow jump looked as if she could be beaten. Molly Ashe made a good effort on Neuville, but he’s another big, slower horse, and they stopped the timers at 40.16 seconds.

The crowd roared as one of their favorites, Margie Engle, cantered into the ring. And, in true Engle style, she went for it on Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold. But a bobble cost them dearly.

“After I jumped the second jump, he went to turn really quickly for me, and he tripped pretty badly,” Engle said.

“My neck snapped back, and I made sure he was still on his feet. I must have lost at least a second there. And then, as soon as his feet were back under him, he really was very quick. All in the middle, he was fantastic.

And then, I missed the inside turn to the last jump because I was worried about him tripping again. The footing was fantastic, but I think he tried to turn so quickly after that second fence, he just stubbed a toe.”

Engle took the lead with a clear round in 39.71 seconds, but she knew it might not last long. “I definitely knew I was a bit slow, and I knew Michael was going to take a shot at it,” she said.

And that he did–Whitaker cruised around on Portofino, a lanky bay mare, nipping around all the turns to cross the finish line clear in 37.02 seconds, more that 2 seconds faster than Engle.

Candice King, last to go, took a shot on Caliskan, but two rails fell, and she finished in 38.89 seconds for fifth place.

Whitaker shipped over from his native Great Britain for the Washington (D.C.) International, Syracuse, and the Royal Winter Fair (Ont.), and he’s confident that Portofino can handle the schedule.

“She’s better when she’s going. Last year, I brought Mozart des Hayettes, and by Toronto, he’d had enough. But she’s better for jumping. She’s not one you can really give a few weeks off. She’s better when you can keep her going and do a few shows,” he said.

Whitaker has had the ride on Portofino for four years, having taken over the reins from Ray Texel after the 2002 World Equestrian Games selection trials (Calif.). Whitaker had very good results on the mare for then-owners, the Saperstein family of California, including a second place in the 2005 FEI Budweiser World Cup Final (Nev.). But the Sapersteins indicated after the World Cup Finals that they were selling Portofino, and Whitaker had to find a new owner to secure the ride. Loyal owners, the Gillespie family, stepped in to keep Portofino in Whitaker’s string.

“She’s getting better and better all the time. When I first got her, I would say she was a little bit cautious about everything, and she didn’t really show the scope that she has. But now she jumps everything very easily,” he said.

Whitaker has the 2007 World Cup Finals–in Las Vegas, Nev., again–in his sights.

And after jumping Richard Jeffery’s course in Syracuse, Whitaker said they’re prepared. “I thought it was very difficult. It was something like you’d see at a World Cup Final–it was that big, I thought,” he said.

Tina Lund, of Denmark, scared the crowd with a frightening fall through the final triple combination, but she was treated at the hospital and released that night with a concussion. She was back competing at the Royal Winter Fair the following week.


Returning To Win
Engle might have been a tad too slow in the grand prix, but there was no beating her student, Erin Holder, in the low junior/amateur-owner jumper grand prix. Holder went first in the speed class and laid down a time on Shinkansen that no one could match. Only the top 10 qualifiers from the division competed in the grand prix.

“I hoped my time would hold! The thing is, since I was guaranteed a ribbon, since they were paying to 10th place, I figured I had nothing to lose. I might as well go for broke right from the beginning. Also, going first, I had nothing to watch, so I had to go all-out from the first second on and hope for the best,” Holder said.

“He was slow in the beginning of the week, even though he was jumping well. He’d never shown in an indoor before. I thought maybe he’d be revved up when he got here, but he was really quiet and smooth. But he was ready to go today,” she continued.

Holder, of Pleasant Valley and New York, N.Y., has had Shinkansen, 12, for five years, after Engle found the Hanoverian gelding for her. Holder keeps Shinkansen at her farm in Pleasant Valley and meets Engle at the shows.

“He has an unbelievable heart,” she said of Shinkansen. “He’s really brave and careful, and he’d kill himself to save you. The only tricky part is that you really have to think about his balance a lot, especially when you’re going fast. He tends to get a little low and not pay attention to where he’s going. But he’s got a heart of gold. Not one day of his life has he tried to do anything that was less than perfect.”

This was Holder’s first time at the Syracuse show, but she felt right at home since she graduated from Syracuse University. Now, Holder works in property management in New York City and has a 4-year-old daughter. She looks forward to moving up to the medium and high amateur-owner divisions with a new horse that Engle found for her in Europe, which was due to arrive when she got home from Syracuse.


Riding A Winner
Whitney Weeks should know how to go fast, after watching her trainer, Kent Farrington, win many grand prix classes on Madison, and her older sister, Alexa, win in the amateur-owner division. So, it was no surprise that Whitney laid down the winning jump-off trip aboard Subliem in the $40,000 Beacon Hill High Junior/Amateur-Owner Grand Prix.

“This jump-off was good for her because she jumps to the right a lot. A lot of the turns were to the right, so we were going that way anyway! I think I made up time on the rollbacks,” Weeks said.

But she gave all credit to her game bay mare, Subliem. “She’s amazing. If you do a quarter of what you have to, she’s never going to have a rail, and that’s an amazing feeling,” Weeks said. “In the air, I’m always jumped loose. I’ve been riding her for a year, and it doesn’t get any better. So many people come up and say, ‘I love your horse!’ I’m lucky to be able to ride her.”

Now 12, Subliem has had plenty of experience. “She’s done everything, and she’s a really fast, careful horse. She was a 1.45-meter speed horse, so she’s just the best horse you can ask for for this division,” said Weeks.

And while Subliem certainly knows what she’s doing, Weeks has to participate as well. “She’s improved my riding exponentially. She’s so fast, but you have to be accurate. You can’t leave really long on her. You have to get it right every time, so it’s really taught me to be accurate.

“When you’re riding a winner, you have to adjust to riding a winner, dealing with pressure, dealing with jump-offs. When you have a horse like her, you can’t go in and think second or third. You have to think, ‘It’s my job to do my part to help her win.’ She’s taught me more than any other horse,” she said.

Weeks is a freshman at Boston University (Mass.) and has to balance showing with her schedule there. “It’s been a little crazy. It’s a city school, and no one really understands the riding, but they’ve been supportive,” she said.


All Coming Together
There was just no beating Lauren Sturges in the medium junior/amateur-owner jumper division at Syracuse. She won three classes, including the grand prix, run as a speed class, on her Cassino Z. “I was just going to go for it. I’d already won the first two, so I decided to go for it in this too,” she said.

Sturges, 17, started riding Cassino Z this summer, and it took her a while to adjust to the powerful stallion. “He was utterly and completely opposite from my other horse. It was definitely difficult to adjust to that,” she said “But I got to ride him up at [trainer Missy Clark’s farm in Vermont] all last week while everyone else was at Washington, and I really think I benefited from that–he went really well this week.”

Sturges bought Cassino Z, an approved Zangersheide stallion by Cassini and out of a Cor de le Breyere mare, in July. In October, she loaned him to her boyfriend, Charlie Jayne, and he won the USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals-East (N.J.) on him. “That’s a cool statement about the versatility of that horse,” said trainer Missy Clark.

“I’m so glad it’s all finally coming together,” said Sturges. “I really felt it this weekend. I wasn’t expecting it to go smoothly like this. I haven’t shown much indoors, and I thought it would be tough for me, but he was incredible and exceeded anything I imagined.

“It’s my last junior year, and it’s a good way to end on a good note,” she added. “I didn’t qualify for the Maclay, so it means a lot to me.”

Sturges, Fort Wayne, Ind., has been accepted to the College of Charleston (S.C.) but is deferring for a year to concentrate on riding. “I started riding at this level much later than most, so I felt like a year off would really help me catch up. It’s been a little bit difficult for me, lacking mileage in the ring. I started showing [on the] A-rated circuit when I was 16. It’s something that I always wanted to do. Finally, I was able to do it financially,” she said.

“Lauren has worked so hard,” said Clark, who Sturges started riding with last summer. “She’s such a good student. Her acceleration has been remarkable. She’s improved probably two or three years worth in eight months. Her attitude is great–she approaches it from a conscientious, calm, non-emotional manner. It makes a big difference.”

Sturges hopes to move up to the high amateur-owner division and then to the grand prix classes on Cassino Z.


Little Tom Is A Big Winner
When Patricia Hennessy first bought Little Tom three years ago, she wasn’t planning on keeping him long.

“The girl who owned him needed to sell him quickly because she was going to school, so they sold him to me very inexpensively,” she said. “I was going to resell him, because I thought he was going to be a nice little project. I really didn’t like riding him because he was like a freight train.”

Little did she know that she and Little Tom would end up as consistent contenders in the adult amateur jumper division and earn the win in the masters/adult amateur grand prix at the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament (N.Y.).

“I backed off and did a lot of flatwork and started showing him. He started winning his entries back a lot of the time. It was nice because it allowed me to go to the next show,” she said. “And lo and behold, my resale project turned into my superstar horse.

“This year, the trust issue has really seemed to come together. I think he likes to have one person. He’s really gotten to know me and trust me, and I think that works for him,” she said.

Little Tom, 11, is the product of an accidental breeding of an Irish Sporthorse stallion with a Connemara mare. “He’s got a lot of pony in him–he can be quite opinionated!” Hennessy said.

Hennessy went last in a four-horse jump-off. Murray Kessler had a quick trip on All That, but Hennessy hadn’t watched him go.

“With my horse, I have to make my plan and stick to it. If what I do is good enough, that’s great, but otherwise, I can’t judge what I’m doing by others,” she said.

She shaved almost 2 seconds off the leading time. “He loves to win,” Hennessy said of Little Tom. “If he has to follow someone in the victory gallop, he gets very upset. He likes his picture taken. One show, we wound up second in the classic, and he went back to his stall and completely dug his stall apart. He was so mad he hadn’t won, he had a temper tantrum.”

Hennessey, Kintnersville, Pa., enjoyed showing at Syracuse because it was something of a last hurrah for the year. She and her husband, Kevin, work for his father’s horse transportation business, George Hennessy Horse Transportation. Their busiest season is just beginning, getting everyone to Florida for the winter. Patricia drives and does bookwork for the company.

Patricia rides with a number of people, including Chris Kappler, Holly Mitten and Callan Solem. “I don’t have a specific trainer–it’s a group effort. They’re all such great people to work with, and they all have such great advice. If you can put it all together, it’s even better,” she said.


Molly Sorge