Keenan HITS Wunderkind!

By Lindsay Yandon June 10, 2013

Fifteen-year-old Lillie Keenan and her horse Pumped Up Kicks won the $125,000 Purina Animal Nutrition Grand Prix at HITS Saugerties on June 8.

The event, presented by Zoetis, concluded three weeks of spring shows at HITS-on-the-Hudson with the only double clear of the day,  mastering course designer Danny Foster’s track.

The pair started competing together at the start of the winter circuits in Florida this year and Sunday marked the first grand prix victory for both Keenan and the horse, owned by Chansonette Farm. “My horse does better the bigger and harder the course,” said Keenan, who hails from New York, New York. “The scope he has is unbelievable – I have yet to jump a fence where I feel like he is actually trying.”

Foster of Milton, Ontario, set a 14-obstacle course with 17 jumping efforts in the first round. The first four riders picked up faults before Laura Chapot of Neshanic Station, NJ, rode Quointreau Un Prince, owned by herself and McLain Ward, to a clear round. She was joined by four more over the course of the 26-horse order with the likes of Jimmy Torano, Margie Engle, Patty Stovel and Keenan capping a five-horse jump-off.

Not shy to give credit where credit is due, Keenan was grateful to her trainer Andre Dignelli and the crew at Heritage Farm for preparing for grand prix competition the horse she affectionately calls “Kicks.” “I bought him to show in the High Junior Jumpers, but after showing in a handful of grand prix over the last few months, he has really stepped up and hasn’t put a foot wrong yet.”

Pumped Up Kicks, a 10-year-old German-bred gelding may have been one of the younger and smaller horses in the field, standing at barely 16.1 hands, but he had his legs up in the jump-off. “He’s a special horse,” Keenan added. “I am new to these classes and we never thought this was where he would excel, so I kind of feel like I am growing up with him.”

In the jump-off, Chapot returned first but saw trouble at the second jump of a double combination at the sixth fence of the track and picked up four faults for a refusal and ten time faults.

Torano of SW Ranches, Florida and Marley Goodman’s Blue Sky Van de Olmenhoeve had been the second clear in the first round and returned to catch a rail at the same double combination for four faults and a final time of 45.91 seconds. Engle of Wellington, Florida and Royce, owned by Elm Rock Partners, LLC, returned third and posted the fastest jump-off round in 43.21 seconds, but collected four faults from a rail at the second fence in the course.

Stovel of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania and her own Carigor Z were on their way to a clear round and the win before a heartbreak rail at the last fence of the jump-off came down and gave her four faults in a time of 45.06 seconds.

“I entered the ring while Patty was still jumping and she was having an effortless jump-off. I thought there was no way she was going to have any rails, but she just got unlucky at the final fence,” said Keenan who entered the ring last and erred on the side of caution, taking her time with a clear round as her top priority. “I knew that if I had a rail I was going to be one of slower times, but I had to take the chance – we had a plan for every fence and I knew that I had to stick to that plan.”

Her plan worked and she jumped to a clear effort in a time of 51.87 seconds for the win. With this rich Zoetis $1 Million Grand Prix qualifier under her belt, Keenan says participating in that high-profile final in September is now possibility for her. “It’s the ultimate goal and is always in the back of my mind, but I don’t want to get too excited about it,” she said with a smile. “He can definitely jump it, but I am just going to keep doing what I am doing and see what happens.”

Competition will return to HITS-on-the-Hudson July 17 – August 4 for the three more weeks of top-notch competition.

 

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