Classic Artes on Memorial Day
By Julia Seltz May 27, 2013
Susan Artes and Zamiro were the only clears over Danny Foster's cousre. (Photo by Paula Parisi)
Susan Artes won, and the course came in second. That was the verdict out of LEG’s $30,000 Memorial Day Classic Grand Prix Monday afternoon.
A single round contest over Danny Foster’s extremely curvy, yet articulate course resulted in a single fault-free round, for Artes and Zamiro, hence no jump-off. The event drew a packed audience to the grass field at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, where the edge-of-your-seat contest culminated the Memorial Day Classic Horse Show, May 23-27.
Artes and Zamiro got the job done. Second-placed Justin Resnik and Carismo Z had a three-point time fault, while Ashlee Bond and Wistful notched third with a single rail at the May 27 event, which took place on the grass, in front of packed bleachers and sold out VIP tables at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, CA.
Jenni McAllister and LEGIS Here I Come were the first of 20 horse and rider combinations to tackle the 13-obstacle course of 16-efforts, with jumps of up to 1.50m. It say a lot about the contest that they topped the leaderboard with no rails but four faults until Bond and Wistful entered the ring 11 trips later.
Susan Artes and Zamiro (Photo by Julia Seltz)
It was the triple that proved the bogey. A right-angle coming off an oxer into the combination – with a tight two-strides to b, and a single stride to c – saw a majority of riders toppling bars, here, although there was a healthy smattering throughout.
“It was a very jumpable course,” said Rusty Stewart, who placed fourth on Bristol with a single rail. “With a tight ring, and the big crowd right up against the field, that makes it extra hard.”
Resnik and Carismo swooped in second to last and notched his second-place, three-seconds over the time-allowed of 96-seconds. “It’s derby-style jumping, you keep each horse out there a long time, with a liverpool, two waters and some tricky things to jump,” Foster said. “With this size field, as opposed to regulation grand prix, it’s more of a jumping derby so, for me a lot has to happen in the first round. Today we had a lot of one-downs. Some of our better horses had four faults.”
About a month earlier, Zamiro and Artes won the $25,000 Grand Prix during the Spring Classic at Flintridge, and the pair seems solidly on its way to stardom. Zamiro is owned by Alix Fargo of Altadena, CA, who also owns Karina 445, another horse Artes had in the game Monday afternoon.
Artes said she was disappointed in her first round, on Karina, dropping three rails, and knew she could do better. “I felt like I didn’t fight hard enough, so when I came back on Zamiro, I fought twice as hard.”
Artes stuck with her plan on Zamiro, who she’s been riding for four years. “When you watch other riders go, it can be tempting to doubt yourself and change your plan. But Zamiro has such a big stride that I have to stick to my plan no matter what other people do,” Susie explained. “We have such a good partnership and we’ve been together long enough that I feel confident I can trust the plan I came up with in the course walk.”
Her plan was obviously the right one, as she finished in plenty of time despite losing a shoe after fence 12. “I left out a stride in the first line, which most people didn’t do. I also took the inside turn option from fences 7 to 8 just to be safe on time, and it never hurts to be fast. I wasn’t worried about clearing fence 8 because we’ve been competing on courses with a tight time allowed so we’ve practiced those tight turns.”
McAllister rode three entries, owned by LEGIS.com, also placing sixth with LEGIS Venice and ninth on LEGIS Here I Come. “The two younger ones [Venice and Here I Come] are really starting to come along. And Marnye Langer is doing great on LEGIS Rock Star. They were really close to winning the Classic this morning, for amateurs, double clean and really fast, then somebody beat them by 1/100th of a second.”
Justin Resnik and Carismo Z had three time faults, good enough for second. (Photo by Paula Parisi)
Resnik and Bond also reined a trio of entries, although Bond was the only rider to have all three mounts land in the money (including fifth on Argo Star and 10th on Cadett 7).
In addition to the veteran riders, the class was distinguished by the presence of three up-and-coming stars: 17-year-old Derek Chang of Pacific Palisades, 18-year-old Killian McGrath and 20-year-old Samantha Harrison.
RESULTS $30,000 Memorial Day Classic Grand Prix (20 entries)
1 Zamiro Susan Artes Alix Fargo
2 Carismo Justin Resnik ZCarismo Group
3 Wistful Little Valley Farms Ashlee Bond
4 Bristol Rusty Stewart Grey Fox Farm
5 Argo Star Ashlee Bond Zuchtoff Klatte
6 Legis Venice Jenni McAllister Legisequine.com
7 Ballingtogether Mustateer Gavin Brodin Gavin Brodin
8 Copias Justin Resnik Ama Marketing & Mgmt. Inc
9 Legis Here I Come Jenni McAllister Legisequine.com
10 Cadett 7 Ashlee Bond Little Valley Farms
11 Bert Kristin Hardin Emily Cohodes
12 Lasse Jamie Barge Jamie Barge
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