 |
| |
|
Laura Kraut and Miss Independent Capture $20,000 1.50m Classic at Winter Equestrian Festival in Tampa
Forty two horse and rider combinations took the field on Saturday for the featured event at 1pm. The $20,000 1.50m Classic was scored under Table II Sec 2(a), Time First Jump Off. Canada’s Michel Vailancourt is this week’s Course Designer. The 1.50m course featured thirteen numbered obstacles with sixteen jumping efforts with a double and triple combination. Nine riders completed the first round course without penalty to qualify for the timed tiebreaker. Fourteen competitors had a single knockdown while nineteen had eight faults or more. Niall Grimes and Mr. President were the first to challenge the jump-off course which was reduced to seven obstacles including the first two elements of the original triple combination. Grimes, riding for The Shannon Group, started things out with a fault free performance and a quick but careful time of 37.810 seconds. Grimes held the lead only until Aaron Vale, the next in, crossed the finish line. Vale, aboard Andrea King’s Sea Cloud put on a fantastic performance, knocking a whopping 4.04 seconds off of Grime’s time. Vale tripped the timers in 33.767 seconds to take over the lead. Markus Beerbaum of Germany, riding Constantin 24 for Bert and Diana Firestone, pulled a rail early in the tiebreaker and cruised home in 43.052 seconds. Candice King and Louisberg Farm’s, Coco Cabana, also picked up four faults, but snuck home ahead of Beerbaum in 41.939 seconds. Ellen Whitaker of Great Britain had an uncharacteristic eight faults with Amaro/Whitaker Sporthorse’s AK Kanseiier, clocking in at 36.922 seconds. Aimee Aron, riding Ostara for the Kinloch Enterprises, toured the jump off course without penalty and finished with a time of 37.328 to move ahead of Grimes and behind Vale for second place. Then it was time for Miss Independent, owned by the Pasmore Stables, and ridden by the red hot Laura Kraut. Enjoying one of the most dominating seasons ever recorded on the Winter Equestrian Festival tour, Kraut would add another win to the record books today. Kraut found every perfect spot and never let up on the gas pedal from the start of the speed course until she crossed the finish line. When the flashy gray mare broke the beams at the finish line, the timers read 32.571 seconds. Kraut had knocked 1.19 seconds off of Vale’s previous top time. Schuyler Riley and Nottingham, from the South Beach Stables, followed with a clear go in a time of 41.373 seconds and Todd Minikus on Sasha, owned by Harry R. Gill completed the afternoon festivities with 19 faults in 53.858 seconds. Kraut, who has posted two major Sunday Grand Prix wins plus a two WEF Challenge Cup wins added another prize to the trophy case with today’s victory. “My horses are amazing. Miss Independent is a phenomenon. I trust her and she believes in me and when you have that going, it’s all just much simpler,” said a smiling Kraut. Knowing Vale’s route helped Kraut plan her own attack. “I did not get to see Aaron go in the jump-off, but I was told he made the inside cut in front of 11 to the combination at 7A and B and that was my big question; whether I was going to go inside to the double or not,” Kraut explained. “He’s always so fast and he’s usually unbeatable so I just went as fast as I could go and hoped for the best.” Second place finisher Vale was satisfied with the day’s result. “I was pretty happy with the ride. I had a small slip or a stumble after number eight on my way back to the second last jump so that held me up a little there,” he said. “So, I knew that I’d left the door open a bit to get beaten. Laura found a really good distance coming forward to that vertical and I knew I was cooked when I saw that.” “The first round course, I thought, was very, very difficult. The triple combination was really, really short,” Kraut laughed. “It took a real careful or very experienced horse to back up and jump that clean.” Vale agreed. “I thought it was quite difficult. The triple was very technical and all the fences were big enough that you could have a knockdown anywhere. Plus, many of these horses today did the WEF Challenge Cup on Thursday, and that course, being so tough I think it took a lot out of those horses today,” Vale estimated. “They didn’t jump quite the same today, after that big effort the other day.” Did today’s exceptional performance by Miss Independent make her the front runner as Kraut’s Budweiser American Invitational mount? “It’s still up in the air,” Kraut conceded. “I’ll probably make that call on Wednesday but she’s really on form right now, but I’ll wait to Wednesday to make the final decision. I’ve got a lot coming up. Right after the Invitational, I’ve got the Charlotte Jumper Classic and then the Budweiser World Cup in Las Vegas and then we’re going to Europe, so I’ve got a lot of decisions to make,” smiled Kraut. “If I had to make the call today, yes, it would be Miss Independent.” “If I was making the call, that mare of Laura’s would be definitely be doing the Invitational,” Vale offered. For Vale, just arriving at this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival from the circuit in Ocala, it would take a big ribbon in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Tampa for him to make the big dance. “That’d be great, but really, I’m just here to get some experience against these guys down here,” he said. “I’ve got some new horses and I’m just getting to know them at this level, but, if we could qualify for the Invitational that would be great. If not, hopefully I’ll have them ready for the Charlotte Jumper Classic the week following,” said Vale. Official Results - #1001 $20,000 1.50m Classic Table II, Sec 2 (a) – 03-26-05 – Covered Arena
PHOTO CREDIT: Miss Independent and Laura Kraut Race to 1.50m Win at WEF. Photo by Randi Muster |
|
|
| Contact Horsesdaily HorsesDaily®, ScoreSource® and PhelpsPhotos® are registered trademarks of Phelps Hathaway Enterprises,Inc. All content under this copyright is the property of PHE, Inc. unless otherwise noted. ©1997-2005 horsesdaily.com All Rights Reserved |
Tampa,
Florida – March 26, 2005 – Laura Kraut continues to be unstoppable
at this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival. With over $100,000
in total prize money already won this tour, Kraut posted her latest
win on Saturday afternoon in the $20,000 1.50m Classic at the Tampa
Bay Classic at the Bob Thomas Equestrian Center on the Florida State
Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida. 
