#themainring

          Del Mar National Horse Show put on a beautiful Grand Prix in tonight's show. The course was full of beautifully colored jumps, tall verticals, and wide oxers, my personal favorite was the lego wall. Chris Pratt and Concorde were the winners of the $100,000 Grand Prix of Del Mar. The course proved to have some difficulties even for the most seasoned riders. There were only four clear riders in the first round of the Grand Prix. Guy Thomas and his mount Jonkheer Z were the first to go clear. It was a fitting start to this even since his mother won this same class 20 years ago in 1996. Chris Pratt and Concorde were the 2nd to go clear followed by Jack Hardin Towell and Flip, who put in an extremely exciting round that had you on the edge of your seats. The last to qualify was Enrique Gonzales and Chacna, beautiful team to watch had lots of scope over the jumps just needs to get more miles under her and Gonzales treated his round as such, but his mare proved she was ready to ride with the best of them.

         The jump off course left the riders with lots of room between jumps to straight out fly but needed to recoil before the jumps in order to make it over. Thomas was first to go but an unfortunate trip caused his horse to knock a rail at the second fence and ended with 4th place. Chris Pratt was second to go, he did not start off like a bullet but rode clean and safe to have the first clear jump-off round. Towell was fast and clean but was just over a second slower than Pratt. Gonzales was having a great round till his horse bucked in between the jumps and she ended up backing up before they got going forward again, though they didn’t have a jump down the team ended up with four faults. Being the first clear round and the fastest Pratt led the victory gallop around the ring.!!