Okay, sports fans, time to get out the scorecards and track the action to the three biggest prize offerings in U.S. show jumping, the HITS Triple Crown: three individual $1 million classes. With the opening of the HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, CA, this week, qualifying starts in earnest. The rules have changed a bit […]
Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and her Bella Donna turned in a million dollar performance on Sunday, claiming top honors and a first prize of $350,000 at the AIG Thermal $1 Million Grand Prix. The duo barely squeezed out the win, as none of the 40 starters managed fault-free tours on designer Conrad Homfeld’s two-round course. Michaels-Beerbaum […]
HITS, Inc., together with the show organizers of Blenheim EquiSports, Jump Del Mar, Sacramento International and Langer Equestrian Group, is pleased to announce the start of the 2012-2013 qualifying period for the newly formed Thermal Million Grand Prix League. The qualifying season begins August 14 and runs through the HITS 2013 Desert Circuit in Thermal, […]
The first half of the HITS Desert Circuit was dominated by Outwoods Farm, the Castro Valley, CA-based sales and training outfit run by Helen McNaught and Duncan McFarlane. With McNaught riding Caballo and Lariccello, and McFarlane aboard Mr. Whoopy, the duo amassed a total of 13 placings over the course of eight grand prix over […]
Canadian Olympic Silver Medalist Jill Henselwood is hoping a great performance on the HITS Desert Circuit will help her and IV Ever get the attention of her nation’s Olympic selectors, and she solidified her position on Feb. 9, adding the $32,000 HITS Desert Classic to her prize list. She also won the first grand prix […]
Francie Steinwedell-Carvin and Taunus were top of class in the first of World Cup Qualifier of the HITS Desert Circuit on Feb. 4, speeding to victory over the indoor course at the $53,000 Strongoid C 2X Grand Prix CSI-W 2* to best a field of 14 competitors. The event played out before a packed house […]
John Bragg lived up to his name and earned boasting rights at HITS, winning the $5,000 Devoucoux Hunter Prix on Feb. 5 with a pair of scores in the 90s aboard Castle Hill. Bragg, of Redwood City, CA, runs Bridgeport Farms. He rose to the top in a class of nearly 60 horse-and-rider combinations, over […]
Rich Fellers got off to a great start on the HITS Desert Circuit, winning the $32,000 HITS Desert Classic on Colgan Cruise, the youngest of three grand prix horses he brought to Thermal. “She is a young, up-and-coming grand prix horse and I wasn’t expecting much before the circuit started, but I guess I […]
In an amazing comeback, Helen McNaught won the second grand prix of the HITS Desert Circuit, piloting Lariccello to the blue in the $50,000 EMO class on Sunday, Jan. 29. McNaught ruptured a neck vertebrae late last year during a schooling incident at her Outwoods Farms, based in Castro Valley, CA. “This is my first […]
Kate Considine and Caretano took top honors at the first major hunter test of the 2012 HITS Desert Circuit season, winning the $5,000 Devoucoux Hunter Prix on Sunday, Jan. 29. A trainer at the Lakeview Terrace-based Willowbrook Stables, Considine topped the field of 39 starters, riding for Hannah Goodson-Cutt, now studying t at Georgetown University. […]