BACK TO THE HAYES DAYS! JAY HAYES AND RIVA TAKE HOME THE WIN!

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013 – ROCKWOOD, ON – On a perfect autumn day at the Angelstone International CSI-W thirty-six horses competed in the $33,000 Open Welcome Presented by Animo.

The high caliber field of competitors enabled course designer Oscar Soberon to design a complex and intimidating course, with a time allowed of 74 seconds. The tight time allowed was a hard test for the riders, claiming many horse and rider combinations as victims.

Quentin Judge was the first of many to be unable to beat the clock with his mount HH Wilco, incurring a time fault for being two seconds over the time allowed.  Jonathon Millar aboard Calvin Klein also managed to pass all the jumping tests, only to take away a time fault for their efforts.

Russia’s Ljubov Kochetova had a battle with the clock on both of her mounts, scoring 1 time fault with Wilford 2, and two aboard Balou du Reventon. Kristen Coe fought the clock as well on her mounts Chin Quin and Veron scoring two with the former and one with the latter.

The first clear of the night went to Leslie Howard and Tic Tac! Expertly managing the time allowed, Leslie kept all the rails up with tight, proficient turns, not wasting a second as she navigated the track. David Arcand aboard Vledder went just one horse after Leslie and managed to snag the second spot of the night in the jump-off.

The majority of the horses with jumping faults in the class had trouble in the triple combination, which was going away from the in-gate and placed at the end of the course. Eleven horses incurred faults on course, after David Arcand’s clear round, until Jay Hayes aboard Riva managed to jump clear and be the third horse entering the jump-off. Richie Moloney and Let’s Go were the fourth and final addition to the limited jump-off, clearing the triple combination with impressive precision.

Leslie Howard and Tic Tac started off the jump-off with a surprising four faults. Second in the ring, was David Arcand aboard Vleddar, who had four faults but managed to be slightly faster on the shorter course than Leslie. It wasn’t until Jay Hayes entered the ring aboard Riva that the jump-off saw its first and only clear round with a time of 42.75 seconds. Richie Moloney closed the jump-off with an unexpected refusal that led to him voluntarily retire for the evening.

Jay and Riva managed the only double clear of the evening out of the thirty-six competitors that competed. Congratulations to Canada’s Jay Hayes on his impressive win against a very large and highly talented field in the $33,000 Open Welcome presented by Animo at the Angelstone International CSI-W!