Thieme HITS’ $1 Million Man

By Paula Parisi September 11, 2011

It was worth the trip from Germany for rider Andre Thieme and Aragon Rouet, who will be leaving Saugerties, New York $350,000 richer after winning the HITS Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix Sept. 11.

California-based Duncan McFarlane and Mr. Whoopy were the only other pair to make it to the jump-off, where they had two rails down in the final combination and had to settle for second, despite a blistering time of 46.79 seconds out of 56 allowed.

McFarlane was the 22nd rider to go in a field of 45, and the first to go clear. The audience sat on the edge of its seats for another 18 rounds before Thieme assured a jump-off on the 40th ride.

“It was an extremely tough course,” McFarlane said of designer Steve Stephens’ effort. “During the course walk, I only focused on round one. I’m sort of superstitious that way. And I paid the price.”

Thieme, who had two perfect rounds, said of the course, “from the beginning to the end, you couldn’t have a mistake. It was a big course, and that last line was the killer.” Indeed, about three-quarters of the riders had rails at the pair of combination jumps at 11 and 12.

Riding Antares F, McLain Ward –the fastest of the four-faulters for third, was all clear until 12 b. Same for Todd Minikus and Saer Coulter,who were 4th and 6th, respectively, on Pavarotti and Springtime.

Course designer Stephens said he was delighted with the way things turned out. “I would have been okay if no one went clear and we had six four-faulters in the jump off. This was a million dollar event. Of course you want to make it hard.”

In designing the course, Stephens had to keep in mind a wide variety of constituents. The field ranged from junior riders to Olympic competitors Ward and Margie Engle. “There was a long test, a normal test and a short test. I didn’t want to cater to one type of horse. I wanted to challenge everyone.”

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