Posted March 5, 2006

Rich Fellers Secures Second Consecutive Win in Indo with $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix Victory

Indio, CA – March 3, 2006 – Rich Fellers became richer after the $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix with Gyro for the ride. The pair weaved through the stiff competition of 64 entries and dismantled Richard Spooner’s 5-horse jump-off campaign to take home a second consecutive championship for Fellers.

Having claimed the $75,000 Footings Unlimited Grand Prix tricolor aboard McGuinness last Sunday, Fellers and Gyro once again executed a masterful ride this week with confidence and poise to break through a massive class, and the day’s unusually high winds.

A brown fog of dust swallowed the Grand Prix as violent gusts of wind tore through the desert in Indio. The course became almost invisible and horses became wild in the class preceding the Ariat Grand Prix. Discussion of postponing the class floated above a gathering of Grand Prix riders near the in-gate, prior to the start of the class. “I need to know how many of you who are riding both today and Sunday would rather ride Saturday and Sunday,” asked Richard Spooner who became the impromptu liaison between riders and HITS management.

With the park’s power out and winds still howling, HITS President, Thomas Struzzieri, surveyed the ring and addressed the riders’ concerns. “We’ll go ahead and build and walk the course,” he announced. “If we decided we want to ride, we’ll ride. If not, we’ll go from there.” Miraculously, Mother Nature mellowed just before the $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix’s readjusted start time and, though an hour late, the hefty class got underway.

Eleven entries navigated course designer Leopoldo Palacios’s challenge without fault, but they had to be quick to do it. In collaboration with the frequently falling rails of fences 5a and 5b, the maximum allowable time of 81-seconds banned most of the class from qualifying to the jump-off. But Feller’s mirrored the patience and precision he practiced last Sunday to successfully navigate the troublesome fence-5 combination and the rest of the course on pace.

“The course in general was very delicate and difficult,” said Fellers. “I think it required a lot of trust of the horse, from a rider’s perspective.”

But the real challenge was yet to come. Spooner mastered the course and systematically qualified five entries into the jump-off, while John Pearce put through two. Also joining the ranks were Peter Pletcher, Jennifer Crooks and Mariano Alario.

Spooner cantered Hilton Flight into the arena and gave a good look to the anxious rails of 5a before galloping a faultless round in 38.45 seconds. With a solid pace initiated by Spooner, Pearce and Champagne took to the course next. But in a shocking clatter of rails, Champagne and Pearce collapsed through the jump and ended their round before it began. Fortunately, both were uninjured.

After Charmed and Pletcher put 8 faults on the board, fence 5a found its way to the dirt twice more for SF Casandra and Crooks, and Apache and Spooner.

Fellers and Gyro returned for their try at the jump-off and set off with a blaze to finish cleanly in 37.90 seconds. “I just stuck with my plan. I felt like all we had to do was ride well and jump well and we’d be fast as a result,” said Fellers. “I know Gyro pretty well and I’ve had him for a couple years and he’s just starting at a Grand Prix level, but I trust the horse.”

Spooner posted the next and final clean round of the jump-off aboard his fourth entry Cristallo. But the pair finished a second behind Gyro and Fellers. Fence 5a jinxed both Urioso and Pearce, and Ezrah and Spooner to put them out of contention. Spooner’s final entry, Airtime, lost the second-to-last rail to leave Rich Fellers atop the class for his second consecutive Grand Prix victory.

Fellers found a 10-year-old Gyro in Ireland 3 years ago and saw great potential in the Dutch-bread gelding. “He is an interesting horses because he foxhunted until he was 10. He was owned by a wealthy Dutchman who had a farm in Ireland and he would ship the horse over every season to hunt,” said Fellers. “It was a real gamble when I tried him, but I credit his owners [Harry and Mollie Chapman] for their confidence in me to buy a ten-year-old that had never show jumped.”

But Gyro displayed a natural ability and took to the jumping ring without a falter. For the past two years, he has been learning the ropes of show jumping in Indio and competed in his first Grand Prix at the end of summer last year. “He’s learned quick. Just two seasons and he’s doing what he’s doing,” said Fellers. Now that Gyro is on the track of victory, the pair hopes to continue their successful hunt for Grand Prix championships in Indio for the final two weeks of the circuit.

Results: HITS Indio Desert Circuit, $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix – 3/3/06

• 1 – Gyro- Harry/Mollie Chapman- Rich Fellers – 0/0-37.90
• 2 – Hilton Flight- Freedom Farms Inc./D Gilchriese- Richard Spooner – 0/0-38.45
• 3 – Cristallo- Show Jumping Syndication’s International- Richard Spooner – 0/0-38.91
• 4 – Ezrah- S&B LLC Corp- Richard Spooner – 0/4-37.30
• 5 – Urioso- Forest View Farms- John Pearce – 0/4-41.69
• 6 – Airtime- C&S Partnership- Richard Spooner – 0/4-43.59
• 7 – SF Casandra- Stella Farm- Jennifer F. Crooks – 0/4-47.00
• 8 – Apache- Richard Spooner- Richard Spooner – 0/8-40.19
• 9 – Charmed- Alex Dillard- Peter Pletcher – 0/8-42.94
• 10 – Kilkenny Lesandra- Kilkenny Crest LLC- Mariano Alario – 0/8-43.11
• 11 – Champagne- Forest View Farms- John Pearce – 0-78.50
• 12 – Presto B- Alix Fargo- Susan Artes – 1-81.23

PHOTO CREDIT: Rich Fellers and Gyro at Indio. Photo by Joshua Walker