“The jump-off really suited me, and she jumped really great,” was Michael Whitaker’s succinct summation of his winning round in the $75,000 Budweiser Grand Prix of Syracuse CSI-W.  Whitaker rode Insul Tech Portofino to the top check tonight, Nov. 3, in Syracuse, N.Y.

“I thought it had quite a few turns, and she’s really good at that.  She’s not that good at galloping long distances, but she can turn,” Whitaker, of Great Britain, said.  “I thought I must have been close to Margie’s time because everything came up well.”

Chris Kappler had led off the five-horse jump-off with an efficient clear round aboard VDL Oranta in 39.74 seconds.  He made a great effort to be fast, but the big gray mare has a big, slow gallop and the twisty, turny jump-off track didn’t suit her as well.  Molly Ashe had similar trouble gaining momentum aboard Neuville, as the next to go, and clocked a clear round in 40.16 seconds.

Engle took the ring next on Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold, and set off at a quick gallop.  But after the second fence, a plank vertical, “I went to turn real quick, and he tripped.  I kind of got jerked a little bit,” Engle said.  “I must have lost at least a second there.  He really picked up in the middle of the course and was fast, but I missed the inside turn to the last jump because I didn’t want him to trip again.  It wasn’t one of those rounds where I thought maybe I couldn’t be beaten.  I knew Michael had a quick horse, and if he went clean, he could do it.”

Whitaker proved her right.  He galloped in on Portofino and looped around the course without taking back.  He and the lanky bay mare stopped the timers with a clean round in 37.02 seconds.  Candice King, as the last to go, made a concerted effort to challenge him, but two rails fell on her way around the course on Caliskan, and she ended up fifth.  Engle took second, with Kappler in third and Ashe in fourth.

Whitaker has had the ride on Portofino for four years.  The former mount of American Ray Texel, Portofino moved to Whitaker’s barn in 2002.  Her owners at the time, the Saperstein family, chose Whitaker to take over the ride.  But last year, after the FEI Budweiser World Cup Show Jumping Final (Nev.) in April, the Sapersteins wanted to sell Portofino.  Whitaker got the Gillespie family, who own other horses for him, to buy the mare and ensure the ride for him into the future.   “She gets better and better all the time.  When I first got her, she was a little cautious, and she didn’t show the scope that she had, but she’s really come along.  She jumped through the triple combination tonight really impressively.”

The triple combination—the last fence at 13ABC—was a true scope test, and caught many horses.  Whitaker categorized Richard Jeffery’s course tonight as “A very tough course, like something you’d see at a World Cup Final.  It was that big, I thought,” he said.

The last combination was the site of the biggest drama of the night.  Denmark’s Tina Lund, on her first visit to the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament, got jumped loose over the B and C elements.  She was flung into the air by her horse’s effort over the C element, and landed hard.  Paramedics transported her out of the ring, and to the Syracuse University Hospital.  At last word, she was being evaluated.  In a surprising twist, just after Lund fell, an unidentified spectator in the stage seating area of the ring—directly in front of where Lund fell—collapsed.  Suffering an apparent heart attack, he received immediate treatment and was also transported to the hospital.