By Sara Cavanagh
Alexandra Thornton rode Naomi, owned by Dunwalke, LLC of Bedminster, N.J., to win an exciting Junior Jumpers Gambler’s Choice class at the Devon Horse Show last evening.
In the Gambler’s Choice, each fence is assigned a numerical value according to its difficulty, and riders make up their own courses, trying to jump the highest point fences in 50 seconds. Each fence can only be jumped twice.
Catherine Pasmore of White Hall, Va., had led throughout much of the class with 1250 points, but Thornton, last to go in the class of 19 entries, just nipped her with a total of 1300 points to take the victory.
Earlier in the afternoon class, Reed Kessler of Armonk, N.Y., zipped around the jump-off course on her Ice d”Ancoeur to win the $3,750 Junior Jumper, Time First Jump-off class.
Her time was so quick that she beat second placed Jessica Springsteen of Colts Neck, N.J., on Stone Hill Farm’s Vornado Van Den Hoendrik by over a full second, quite remarkable in that tenths and even hundredths of a second usually separate the winners in these classes.
Springsteen was also third on Stone Hill Farm’s Iscariote, from a jump-off field of 13 from a starting field of 31.
Kessler won the class for the second consecutive year, having emerged victorious last year on here Flight.
Christy DiStefano of Ramsey, N.J., added a second in the A.S.P.C.A. Maclay Horsemanship class yesterday to her first and second ribbons from Thursday to win the R.W. “Ronnie” Mutch Equitation Championship.
Her victory, the biggest in her career at Devon, was even sweeter as she beat a huge field of 110 of the top equitation riders in the country.