Adequan United States Eventing Association Gold Cup Series Coming Down to the Wire
RELEASE: August 16, 2007
AUTHOR/ADMINISTRATOR: By Amy Daum
Only a handful of events remain on the 2007 Adequan United States Eventing Association (USEA) Gold Cup Series calendar, and with some of the country’s top horses and riders vying for the number one spot, the race for the cup is sure to have an exciting finish. This past weekend Millbrook Horse Trials in New York and Woodside Horse Trials in California both hosted Gold Cup events, and some surprising twists led to a shuffle in the leaderboard.
In the advanced standings, Will Faudree and his well-seasoned gelding Antigua took back their number one spot from Kelly Prather and Andrea Pfeiffer’s lovely mare Ballinakill Glory who had jumped to the head of the pack after The Event at Rebecca Farm in July. Faudree and “Brad” finished Millbrook in sixth place overall, adding 140 Gold Cup points to their previous tally of 415, leaving them with 555 points so far this season.
Corinne Ashton and her chestnut Thoroughbred gelding Dobbin moved up the leaderboard to the second place position after riding off with the win at Millbrook and gaining a hefty 200 points for their efforts. Ashton and Dobbin now have 440 points, only a few points ahead of Prather and Ballinakill Glory, who were bumped down to third place in the standings with their 425. Becky Holder and husband Tom’s Courageous Comet are close by in the fourth spot with 415 points.
On the intermediate board, Will Coleman and K. du Manoir are holding tight to their top spot with a score of 260. However, Hawley Bennett and SplendoroftheSun are just five points behind with 255 with Stuart Black and Fleeceworks Mystere du Val next with 180. Considering that Coleman and Black have both moved their mounts up to advanced, Bennett has a clear shot at the top spot if she competes at and does well at the last event of the season, Twin Rivers Horse Trials in Paso Robles, CA, at the end of September.
Quite a few new names have made their mark on the intermediate leaderboard in the past few weeks—Young Rider Cassidy Lundmark and her Quarter Horse gelding What’s Shakin’ hopped to seventh with their win at Maui Jim CIC*** in July. Jan Byyny and her new mount Syd Kent added their names, as did Laura VanderVliet with Warrie Hill, Emily Hansen-Palmus and Internet, and Anne Carr with Safari, among many others.
With Richland Park in Michigan, Poplar Place in Georgia, and Twin Rivers in California all hosting Gold Cup events in the next six weeks, the standings could quickly be shuffled, with new names making surprise moves to the top of the leaderboards. The three final events give riders from the East, Midwest and West equal opportunities to make a grab for the Cup.
Richland Park Horse Trials, held on August 23-26, has quite a number of entries from many of the leaderboard’s top ten horse-and-rider combinations. Last year’s Gold Cup Intermediate champion Becky Holder has a clear shot at the top of the advanced leaderboard with the talented grey gelding Courageous Comet if all goes well. And who knows, after that, they may go on to take the advanced division at the Wellpride American Eventing Championships at Lamplight Equestrian Center, September 13-16.
Will Coleman is slated to run K. Du Manoir, but they’ll be in the CIC*** division, so won’t be eligible to gain intermediate points—but who knows, perhaps they’ll add some advanced points to their resume. Stuart Black and Fleeceworks Mystere du Val will be in the same boat at the three-star level, as will Laura VanderVliet and Warrie Hill and Emily Hansen-Palmus and Internet, so be sure to look for some new names to be added to the leaderboard after Richland.
Winners of each division during the year take home $500 from each series event. In addition, the list of prizes available to top finishing competitors in 2007 includes: seven-dose packs of Adequan, gift certificates from World Equestrian Brands, brushing boots from Nunn Finer, fly sheets and No-Bow band