OCALA, Fla.--Germany’s Andre Thieme on Conacco won the $100,000 Grand Prix at HITS Ocala on Sunday, Feb. 19.
Andre Thieme on Conacco (Photo by ESI Photography)Tieme won in a 12-horse jump-off, clean in a full second faster than second place finisher Sharn Worldey on Mick Jagger, and Katherine Brewer on Casido 2 was third.
“I have had Conacco many years by now and we’ve had some great international wins together,” said Thieme. “He’s a real fighter and a real partner, and I hope our journey continues for many years. He’s always fresh and always going, so I always have to try to slow him down, and he's just a very competitive, cool horse.”
Thieme was second to go in the jump-of over a course set by Martin Otto and the first to go clean.
Taking the tightest track possible to the penultimate vertical proved key to winning as he finished in 45.114 seconds.
Wordley went two rounds later on Mick Jagger, but his round of 46.539 seconds was not enough to catch Thieme.
As one of the last to compete, Brewer on Casido 2 almost took the second place position from Wordley, but a slight hesitation in one of the turns cost them a fraction of a second for a fault-free time of 46.862 seconds, resulting in third place.
"I HAVE a very quick horse and a very, experienced horse,” said Thieme. “I tried to go with him and there was one place just before the second-to-last jump where you could really could cut short and take a very short turn. That's what I did because I knew that's what my horse is good at, and it worked very well! In the end we were faster than anybody else and left the rails up!”
Thieme has been a regular at HITS Ocala for over 20 years.
“It's unbelievable footing here in the schooling area and in the Grand Prix ring,” he said. “That's the most important thing for the horses. I like everything about HITS, I always have, and the new footing is extra, extra nice.”
