Jonathan Asselin successfully defended his title as the 2005 RBC Challenge horse jumping champion with two clean runs and a different mount at the evening event of the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.
Asselin ran two horses in the RBC jump-off — Rayona Chiara and Lolita — and took first and third place respectively for a combined $7,200 win last night.
“It feels great,” Asselin said cheerfully. “Both horses jumped fantastic.
“I was going to try an inside turn on jump number 11 (with Lolita), but I had already secured first place, and I knew it wasn’t worth the risk.”
The Alberta rider left last year’s winning horse, Lucks Good, out of the competition.
Gary Brewster and Hurricane, his Irish red gelding, managed a clean run just two-tenths of a second off of Asselin and Rayona Chiara’s winning time for the second-place ribbon and $3,240 purse.
Brewster also took the fourth-place ribbon with his gelding, Royal Viali.
“Tonight was... well the horses were in great shape,” Brewster said. “We were trying to catch Jonathan. He and Rayona were the trail blazers tonight.
“With horses, when you have a good night, you enjoy it, because tomorrow, anything can happen.”
The course for the 2006 RBC Challenge was a little easier on the 18 riders who competed last night, though it didn’t start that way.
After the first three riders appeared to have some difficulty in the ring — including Brewster who sustained a time fault under the original time limit — course designer Leopoldo Palacios lengthened the time limit to 58 seconds. After the change, Brewster’s time fault was taken off.
In total, six riders made eight clean runs in the first round to advance to the 34 second jump off. But only Asselin’s and Brewster’s horses cleared their second runs. |
