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| Issue #24, September 8, 2006 |
Grand Prix Drama
Olympian Wins $150,000 Event at the Hampton Classic Horse Show
Despite the downpours, gale force winds, and skeptic weather forecasters the 31st Annual Hampton Classic was anything but a wash-out. Sure enough, many of the events were only watched by diehard equestrian fans and supportive family members, but the weather on Sunday proved to everyone on the East End that if there is a god, he sure as hell loves Grand Prix Sunday. Even more so, he loves strong competition.
But before we get to the Prudential Grand Prix Championship let’s take a look at some of the events that occurred throughout the week that led up to it. The multiple winner of Course Designer of the Year, Southampton’s own Conrad Homfeld, was put to the task of creating some of the most challenging and skillful courses in Classic history. And with Mother Nature acting as she did, other factors came into play during the week. Torrential rains softened the turf, bogging the horses down slightly and heavy winds on Saturday blew jumps over.
Great riders prevailed in some of the closest times in recent years. In the $50,000 Grey Goose Vodka World Cup & Grand Prix Qualifier, Christine McCrea and her horse, Vegas, took first prize as they navigated the course without a single fault. Leading the field of 53 riders they finished with a jump-off time of 45.40 seconds. Only .71 seconds separated McCrea from Kevin Bablington of Ireland and rounding out the top three were Molly Ashe and her horse Cocu with a time of 47.18 seconds. In an interesting turn of events, McCrea bowed out of the Grand Prix competition, stating, “I came here only for this class. . . besides I think my luck ran out.”
But had it also run out for Anne Kursinski of Frenchtown, New Jersey? On Sept. 2nd, she placed second in the $25,000 Sotheby’s International Realty Open Jumper Class, losing by 1.06 seconds. But coming in second to Chris Kappler of Pittstown, New Jersey, didn’t sit well with this two-time Olympic silver medalist as shades of the 30th Annual Hampton Classic started to rear their head, when she was beaten by Joe Fargis, the final jumper in 2005 Grand Prix by twelve one-hundredths of a second.
Homfeld’s 16-jump first round course was like a sieve, straining the field of 30 down to three fault-free riders and it was to be a tiebreaking course that would determine the 2006 Grand Prix Champion. There was Lauren Hough of Wellington, Florida, Anne Kursinski and Chris Kappler, all three Olympian riders. Hough went first, navigating the 7-jump course on Casadora. Her 39.43 second, four-fault ride was the score to beat. With the loss to Kappler in the Sotheby’s Open in the back of her head, Kursinski would be next. She was fault-free and pulled in a time of 39.09 seconds. So here she was again, in the same position as the year before, waiting to see if she would win this year’s Classic. Kappler took off on his horse, VDL Oranta, clearing the first jump. Then the second, and third. Kursinski couldn’t bear to watch as Kappler cleared the fourth and fifth jumps. It looked as if he was to be this year’s Fargis. The sixth jump – cleared. The seventh – cleared. It was a faultless performance, and the grand stand was tense with wonderment. Had it happened again to Kursinski?
As clean and crisp as Chris Kappler and VDL Oranta’s performance was, they were .35 seconds too slow. Anne Kursinski had come back from the crushing defeat of previous year’s Grand Prix, and second place in the Sotheby’s International Realty Open Jumper Class just the day before and won the 2006 Hampton Classic $150,000 Prudential Financial Grand Prix. That day, the sun was the second brightest star in the Hamptons.
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