LAKE PLACID, N.Y.--Laura Chapot capped a huge week at Lake Placid by winning the $100,000 Grand Prix on Thornhill Kate on July 7 at the I Love New York Horse Show, the second week of the 49th annual Lake Placid Horse Shows.
Laura Chapot on Thornhill KateChapot won featured jumper classes on Tuesday and Wednesday as well as finishing second in a third featured class and winning and placing high in others before winning the Grand Prix.
Seven of 36 entries advanced to the jump-off over a course designed by Michel Vaillancourt, and three of the seven then were clean again.
Amber Harte on Cafino, first to go in the jump-off, was clean in 39.725, and Chloe Field on Tess de Jalesnes, second to go, was also clean in 46.978.
Riding her 13-year-old, Irish Sport Horse mare, Chapot was fourth tin the jump-off, and she moved into the lead with a time of 38.996 seconds.
The last rider to try to beat Chapot was two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2017 FEI World Cup champion, McLain Ward, but he had eight faults on his young horse, Upsilon de la Liniere, giving Chapot her fifth Grand Prix win in Lake Placid.
"KATE IS A naturally fast horse," Chapot said. "She's very careful and she's a real trier. With her, I don't have to always press, press, press at every jump. I can just rely on her natural quickness and let her do the job."
"Of all the Grand Prix I compete in throughout the year, I want to win in Lake Placid the most," Chapot said. "I have been up here every summer of my life and the people in this town are so incredibly nice that it just means so much to me to win here."
Harte finished second place and Field was third, with Ilan Bluman of Colombia fourth with four jump-off faults in 43.470 seconds on EAX Run Run LS.
Chapot's win also earned her the Richard and Diana Feldman Trophy as the rider with the most prize money in Lake Placid's two Grand Prix events.
It's the third time she has won the award, having won previously in 2014 and 2016.
Earlier Saturday morning, Clementine Goutal of New York, N.Y., rode Diamond Foxy to the win in the $10,000 Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper Classic, a member event of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame Jumper Classic Series.
Out of 38 entries, 10 advanced to the jump-off with clean first rounds.
Goutal was one of two riders to go clean again, taking home the win with a time of 38.547 seconds.
Second place went to Jean Sheptoff riding Coconut Z with a time of 39.948, and in third was Tanner Korotkin on Armageddon, who had the fastest jump-off time of 37.373 seconds but who had a rail down for 4 faults.
JIMMY TORANO of Mohrville, Pa., rode Exclusive, owned by Isalou, Inc., to win the USHJA International Hunter Derby on Sunday.
Jimmy Torano on ExclusiveExclusive received a two-round total of 374.5 points from the two judging panels of Rachel Kennedy with Joe Dotoli and Julie Winkle with Tom Brennan to win Lake Placid's culminating hunter competition.
After the first round, Exclusive had been sitting second to LaFitte De Muze, owned by Cheryl Olsten and shown by Amanda Steege, but an impressive score of 197 in Round 2 outscored LaFitte De Muze by five points to give Exclusive the win for the second straight year and make it three years in a row for Torano.
"This is a horse that actually does the 3'3" amateurs and hasn't jumped over 3'3" since we did this class last year," said Torano. "He's been doing the amateurs with Daryl Portela who owns him and we just decided to do this Derby yesterday. He came out and jumped really well. He was great in the handy and he was neat everywhere and luckily they gave us the nine bonus points. It was just a great ride."
Steege was equally happy with her horse who finished with a two-round score of 370 after receiving the highest base score in both rounds. "LaFitte is just learning how to do the derby and I didn't want to push him," she said. "I chose to do just one of the high options because jumping 3'9" is already something new for him. I'd rather be patient and bring him along slowly as he's going to be something really special."
