OCALA, Fla.--Canada’s Francois LaMontagne on Chanel du Calvaire won the $75,000 Grand Prix at HITS over a field of 16 on Saturday, March 2.
Francois Lamontagne on Chanel du CalvaireNine were clean in the first round, including Tracy Fenney, Aaron Vale, Devin Ryan and two for LaMontagne, over a course set by Meghan Rowlins of Canada.
LaMontagne on Chanel du Calvaire was clean in 35.43 for the win.
“She's been going well since the beginning of the circuit this year,” LaMontagne said. "She has been feeling better and younger than ever, so she's been going great but I just hadn't won any grand prix so far. Still I felt that everything was good and in the right place so it was just a matter of time and luck. All the stars were aligned today for me."
“Nine was a really good number to have so we had a really good jump off today,” he said. “Tracy pushed me enough, but it was still beatable, and Aaron started better than I did. I think it helped to have my first one go in so I could ride it once and see how the strides worked out. I wanted to do seven strides with Chanel in the jump off, but she jumped a little sticky to the first one so I had to go for the eight and lost a little bit of time there.”
FENNEY on MTM Apple was just mere milliseconds off the pace, finishing in 35.66 seconds to place second.
Lisa Goldman-Smolen on Sovereign was third in 37.76 seconds, and Haley Waters Wear on Over Lux was fourth , clean in 38.80.
Vale on Cristo Beech and Ryan on Hangover were fifth and six respectively with four faults each.
Two hunter derbies were competed on Friday afternoon, the $5,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby and the $5,000 USHJA Junior/Amateur National Hunter Derby.
In the Junior/Amateur, 22 competed over a hunt-and-go course, and Jaime Auletto on Blue Avenue dominated over the two-phase course to win.
“I was really happy with today, especially since I just got down here last night,” Auletto said. “I have been home for the last two weeks, so it was nice to go around, and it was a beautiful course. I've never done a hunt-and-go so that was kind of fun, and I liked that he just went right into the handy.”
“Blue Avenue is actually really fun in the handy rounds because he's pretty good at them,” she said. “I was really happy there were some options where you could make your own course for part of it and I thought that was fun because you could think about what would work best for your horse. I was happy with the plan I made and it was fun to be able to go nice and smooth and then kind of turn it up a notch and to be able to make that look like a smooth transition.”
Lucy Massucci was second on MTM Cocktail, and Annabell Brown on Style was third.
David Wilbur on Cornet's Cuneo won the National Hunter Derby over field of 19.
“He really rose to the occasion and I was very fortunate to get to ride such a nice horse,” Wilbur said. “I felt like I had a really good round, but there were definitely a lot of really good horses and riders still to come. Fortunately it was my day."
“I thought the course was great because it gave you a lot of options and you could show off their strengths by making the best plan for your horse,” he said. “I enjoy the hunt-and-go’s because it’s a nice change of pace and lets you show off your horse’s skills a bit differently.”
Like Auletto, Wilbur is a member of Redfield Farm under trainer Emil Spadone and credits the team behind the scenes with the success.
“It was a very good day for Redfield and I think again it all starts at the top,” he said. “I'm very fortunate to get to ride a lot of nice horses. We always have a lot of really nice quality sales horses and I get to ride them usually for only a little while because they are nice and sell fast, but that's not a bad thing.”
Kasey Evans on Rüdiger Blue was second, and Morgan Ward on Comissario was third.
