Clarke McLords It Over Memorial Day Crowd
By Paula Parisi June 1, 2012
Lane Clarke and McLord's First John jump to victory at the Memorial Day Grand Prix. (Photo by Paula Parisi)
Call it a Cinderella ending! Lane Clarke, last in the ring on the Irish Sport Horse McLord’s First John, rode off with the blue ribbon at the Langer Equestrian Group’s $30,000 Memorial Day Grand Prix, May 28 at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.
Jenni Martin-McAllister was a close second on Union Jack, and Clarke third on Casseur de Prix. The results for Clarke were a repeat of his April 28 performance at the Flintridge Horse Show where the rider had the exact same placings on the same mounts in the $25,000 Land Rover Grand Prix.
Clarke seemed excited at the momentum behind the horse. “He is definitely on a hot streak,” Clarke, who is based in Laguna Hills at Mickey Hayden Show Jumping, said of the 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding. Hayden has owned the horse for about three years, and Clarke says he “gets better and better every year. He’s really coming into his own, learning how to go fast, and been careful and handy and gallops hard.”
The horse is huge―18.1 hands―and Clarke said he’s “super quiet on the ground, but has tons of energy when it comes to competition. He doesn’t have any quit in him at all. He’s always had a lot of heart, but hasn’t always been this rideable and consistent.”
Clarke said designer Danny Foster “builds tough courses,” and this one had a hairpin turn at 3 a-b. Clarke explained he had the same plan for both mounts. “In the jump-off, the first three jumps had some turns and some rollbacks, and I felt it wasn’t worth being risky there, I just had to be fast enough. Then the last five jumps were set up for galloping speed, so I thought I’ll do the first three kind of fast, and be more careful with the last two.”
Clarke took the lead first on Casseur, gave it up to Martin-McAllister and then grabbed it back again on his last tour through. Casseur, also a 13-year-old gelding (owned by Granville Equine) has chalked up his share of wins, including the $5,000 Ride and Drive at Del Mar. “I rode and Rich Fellers was driving. That was really fun! Dale [Harvey] puts on a great show, and I’d like to thank the Langer Group, too, for doing a fantastic job. They got a great crowd out to see us, and went through a lot of trouble with the music ―getting the songs and flags from every nation.” Clarke rides for Australia.
Another nice twist was having young rider Kilian McGrath, who is only 17, make it to the jump-off on Salerno. Alas, she was eliminated after a second refusal at the second-to-last jump, but it was good enough for seventh. Not bad in a field of 25, and bodes well for her performance as part of the Zone 10 North American Young Rider Championship Finals team in late July.
Susan Artes won the $7,500 1.35m Jumper Classic on Karina 445, owned by Alix Fargo. “She’s a little bit of a character,” Artest said of the horse, who she is taking to Spruce Meadows. “She can be strong and bull headed, but when you get her in the ring she tries her hardest. I’m really proud of her.”
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