DEVON, Pa.--Aaron Vale on Carissimo 25 carefully plotted out his jump-off strategy and then executed it perfectly to win the $225,000 Sapphire Grand Prix of Devon in front of a incredibly huge crowd of spectators on Thursday evening, May 29 at the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair.
Aaron Vale on Carissimo 25 (Photo by Kind Media)Six horses went clean from the starting field of 25, with Vale winning by going clean in 33.70.
Shane Sweetnam of Ireland on the 9-year-old Coriaan van Klapscheut Z went first in the jump-off, and finished in clean in 34.29, a time fast enough to challenge others to beat him.
Sweetnam ultimately placed second.
Alex Matz of Coatesville, Pa. on Ikigai went next and finished in 34.60 to place third with Alexandra Worthington on De L'Oiseliere fourth, clean in 35.32,
Chloe Reid on Crossover 4 had four faults in 34.26 to place fifth, and Baylee McKeever on Formidable had a stop caused by trying to turn sharply to a fence plus time faults to place sixth.
Baylee is the daughter of Lee McKeever, McLain Ward's long time friend and stable manager.
Ward on Callas had the very last fence down in the first round to miss the jump-off, eliciting a big groan of disappointment from the crowd.
"I went up in the stands to watch Shane's jump-off round," said Vale. "I could see the strides better from the stands."
Most did nine strides from fence one to two and some left out a stride to the last fence.
"I FIGURED if I did eight from one to two and eight from two to three it would get me in a rhythm, and then I could be a bit conservative," said Vale. "I thought about leaving one out to the last, but I took a peek at the clock and thought I was okay, Then Carissimo jumped really high over the last, and that took more time, and I was afraid that might have lost it."
Alex Matz on Ikigai (Photo by Kind Media)But Vale was still the fastest , winning by .5 of a second.
"This is really special," said Vale. "It's a nice addition to my career. My horse ships over to Europe in two weeks to compete in the League of Nations at Rotterdam."
"I got Carissimo about two years ago," he said. "He's a super talent and has tons of ability. With that ability, I feel we should win every time we go in the ring. I'm trying to get more consistency."
"I didn't show here last year, but I've been here enough times," he said. "The crowd was packed tonight, and they were into it. It's a lot of fun when there are people watching and into it."
There were so many people sitting and standing ringside that there was barely room for two people to walk between that crowd and the packed grand stands.
"My horse is only a 9-year-old," said Sweetnam. "This was his first four star. The reason I brought him to Devon was to give him more experience. He's naturally quick, but probably from fences two to three I gave him an extra second, and that's what beat us. I knew I was quick enough, but I knew I could be caught there."
"This is my hometown show,and Dad won this Grand Prix a lot," said Matz. "I try to get the wisdom from my Dad. It was a very careful and scopey course with a challenging triple combination."
Matz' father Michael won a lot of classes at Devon over the years, many on Jet Run, and was an Olympic medalist before turning to training racehorses.
"I've had Ikigai for three years," said Matz. "He's super careful. He jumped fantastic tonight."
