The U.S. Show Jumpers Think They Have Their Best Team In Years
If Royal Kaliber returns, second place at Aachen (Germany) could be a harbinger of good things to come in Athens, writes Molly Sorge.

The pressure on Peter Hain, leader of Great Britain's House of Commons, to capitulate to the demands of his vociferous Labour Party members and reintroduce an anti-hunting bill has been intensifying steadily all summer. On July 8, Labour M.P. Gerald Kaufman reminded Hain that 269 members of Parliament had signed a motion calling for the reintroduction of the bill, then appeared to throw down the gauntlet by revealing he had assured those whom had written in support of a ban that the Leader of the House "can be trusted to bring in the bill before the end of the session."

Despite recovering from a fractured hip just five months earlier, Margie Engle outraced the competition to win the $40,000 Merrill Lynch Cleveland Grand Prix in Cleveland, Ohio, July 18, for an unprecedented sixth time. Her win puts her in the Cleveland record book with wins in 1992, '97, '99, '00, '03 and now 2004. Riding Hidden Creek's Wapino, she earned the fastest time (40.00 seconds) of the nine-horse jump-off with a clean round.

"This doesn't happen to people like me," said Kim Morani wistfully. "My passport isn't even stamped. I just got one last year!"

After a spectacular 10th-placed finish at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in April, Morani, 45, is now staring at her first-ever opportunity to compete at England's legendary Burghley CCI****, on Sept. 2-5.

"I didn't have great aspirations for Kentucky," said Morani, one of 22 U.S. riders nominated for Burghley. "Getting a ribbon at Kentucky was absolutely unbelievable."