2007 Palm Beach Derby's Daily Dish

Astrid's Journal - March 3, 2007: Euro-Celebrity Spotting

On Friday, the Palm Beach Derby got into full swing with classes going in four rings. This meant that Mary and JJ's crew of Phelpettes had to be on the ball the entire day, and that includes me. I shot the Open Prix St Georges class and the FEI Young Horse classes in Ring 2 in the morning, which was fun.

It is always great to see the new combinations on the scene. The winner of the class, Michelle Gibson, presented a new horse, Don Angelo, a beautiful Oldenburg stallion by Don Larino out of Elektina.

Round noon, the amount of spectators grew and I sighted many famous European riders who were either training students here in Florida, or doing business marketing horses, or they zere just on vacation and checking out the scene. Ulla Salzgeber was training Christopher Hickey and watching him ride, Martin Schaudt was coaching Pati Pierucci aboard Kim van Kampen's Andalusian horses.

Dr Ulf Moeller, head of sales of Performance Sales International (P.S.I), came up to say hi, and his boss Ullrich Kasselmann followed in his wake. Of course, German Klaus Balkenhol, U.S. National Dressage Coach, and his wife Judith were driving around the show grounds checking out some of his students and other riders of the American A- and B-squad.

Later on that day, one of the reasons for the presence of hot shot horse dealer Ulli Kasselmann at the Derby became clear. Kasselmann, Moeller and Tim Dutta signed a contract with Gill Merrick, the director of High Performance Dressage, to become the title sponsors of the USEF Developing Horse Program. This is a special show circuit for Prix St Georges horses between 7 and 9. These horses have to compete in specially designated PSG classes for their age division throughout the country and there will be a big whopping finals at the 2007 National Young Horse Championships in Lexington, KY, in September.

"We have Scott Hassler as our national young horse coach, Debbie McDonald as our developing horse coach and Klaus Balkenhol as our national dressage coach," Gill Merrick explained. "With the Developing Horse Program all this will be tied together." Kasselmann and Dutta explained their motivation for sponsorship as "giving something back to the sport." "Many of the riders are our clients and for us this is a way to thank them," Dutta said. The trio added that the program is a good way for riders and trainers of small tour horses to stimulate them to move onto Grand Prix. The entire program is part of a major plan to gather a pool of talented FEI horses from which team horses for the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky could potentially be picked.

It was a pleasant delight to see the Danish/Swedish duo Per Sandgaard and Peter Markne inspecting the horses at the CDI ring. I go up to them and say hi, but for them it takes a while to recognize me. I spoke to Per on the phone a few years ago when his horse Zancor got sold to Nadine Capellmann and met Per and Peter for the first time at the Equine Elite Auction in October 2006. They had just bought a horse and were celebrating that with lots of champagne. Good reason why they wouldn't remember me now. When asked what Per and Peter were doing in Florida, they said that they were on vacation and exploring the Florida scene on their very first trip to the United States. Their sponsor Leni Söderberg has a farm in Florida and they were checking that out, taking a winter stint with some horses in Florida next year into consideration.

After the FEI Young Riders Team Test, my shooting job is done and it's time for a quick break. Michael Shondel and Pelle Wedemark share a beer with me while we talk horses. I normally don't drink beer but for the sake of decent social behaviour I cave in to one Corona. Of course, it took me ages to finish it

While Tracey and Christine are working in the camper organizing photos and printing them out, I prepare the scores of the day for the Horsesdaily website. At the same time, Mary is taking a shower and getting dressed. All of a sudden she says, "are you ready?" I go, "what do you mean?" she replies, "we are going to Nan Sexton's party." Ai carramba, I was still sitting there in my day clothes, sweaty and greasy from all the sunscreen on my skin. I had to wash, change, and look presentable in five minutes. Anyone who tells me that women take too long to get dressed now stand corrected! I must confess that even though I arrived at the party looking decent, I still had sand hanging on my ankles. Oh well.

Upon arrival at the party, Mrs Sexton poured the most delicious fresh made Caipirinha,. Waiters were coming round with very original Brazilian snacks: crab meat and chick peas on lettuce, spicy meatballs, sausages, etc, etc. Yumm! We chatted to the people but left quite early as we were all quite tired from a day of hard work.