By Sara Cavanagh
In an exciting six horse jump-off, McLain Ward of Bedford, N.Y., won the $50,000 Idle Dice Open Jumper Stake on Rothchild to take the coveted Leading Open Jumper Rider title.
Ward’s was the only clean round, and Laura Chapot of Neshanic Station, N.J., finished second on Bradberry with the fastest four-fault finish.
Ward and Hillary Dobbs of Susssex, N.J., had battled back and forth all week, first one and then the other, leading in the race for the Leading rider title, but in the end it was the two-time Olympic Team Gold medalist who won.
But Dobbs took a piece of the glory, winning the Open Jumper Championship on her Marengo, thus repeating her 2008 win.
“McLain and I have been neck and neck all week,” said Dobbs, 20, an up-and-coming international rider. “It’s an honor to be that close and to be than competitive with McLain.”
“It’s always a great honor to win at Devon,” said Ward. “Hillary is a worthy adversary.”
Rothchild is a young horse rounding into a top horse for Ward, currently second string to his Olympic mount Sapphire, but certainly one to watch in the future.
Philip Richter of Bedford, N.Y., smoked the jump-off course in the $15,000 Cavalor Show Jumping Hall of Fame Amateur-Owner Jumper Classic on Coker Farm’s Glascow to win the class and earned enough points to also win the Amateur Owner Jumper Championship.
Richter’s round was so quick that he finished almost four seconds faster than second-placed Kirstie Dobbs of Carmel, Ind.
“I started showing Glascow a year ago in Wellington (at the Winter Equestrian Festival),” said Richter. “He’s the most incredible horse I’ve ever ridden or ever will ride. In a jump-off, you can make any tight turn into a fence. He’s like a cat. He can climb up one side of a fence and down the other.”
“Bringing Glascow is like bringing a machine gun to a quail hunt,” said Richter.
Richter said he is a “true amateur, a weekend warrior.”
“I have my own investment banking business, Hollow Brook LLC, in New York,” he said.
Richter said he and his partner had been worried about the banking business for a long time, so they had not been fully invested, so, therefore, while of course hurt by the economy, weren’t as badly hurt as many.
Ann Girrard rode Milo, owned by Shannondell Farm of Norristown, Pa., to the championship of her section of Local Hunters and to the Local Hunter High Score Award.
“I bought Milo’s dam when she was in foal to Magical, and the result is Milo,” said Mary Lou Neilson, owner of Shannondell.
“Milo is a class clown,” said Girrard. “We’re planning to show him in jumpers and hunter Derbies. He loves his job, loves to win, and he gets better and better every day.”