Ocala, FL – The $10,000 Buckeye Nutrition Futures Prix was the highlight event of the afternoon as 43 aspiring horse-and-rider combinations put forth their best efforts over a track built by FEI Level IV course designer Alan Wade (IRL). Competition was fierce as the pressure mounted with each athlete faster than the next, but it was Erynn Ballard of Canada that piloted Sydney Levy’s Iranta (Dallas VDL x Aranta) to a blistering fast jump-off to secure the win.
Ballard rode three up-and-coming horses in today’s class where she found two clear first round efforts, “I rode three in this class today. I’ve been super busy all week, riding seven or eight in each class. I picked today for the horses that were moving up or needed an extra class. It’s so nice to have open jumper classes on the weekend. Normally these horses are finished showing Friday, and don’t show again until next week, so to have the opportunity to have this class today then the open 1.40m class tomorrow, I think it really spread out the week and you can make a really useful schedule.”
“My first horse I went on, this was a big class for him. This was the first time he’s ever gone in a stake and I only had one down, I was so happy with him,” shared Ballard about her first round aboard Palou Du Rouet Van’t Bisthof. “My next horse is a super star in the making. She’s nine and honestly, I came out of the ring sitting second on her and thought that was so fast, I can’t go faster, but you get classes like this where people are going faster and all of a sudden I was fourth. I didn’t want to be fourth in this class – I wanted to win it, but that’s great competition. It makes for better riding.”
Ballard returned on her final mount Iranta and had one simple goal, “Win. She’s a fast horse. I did the exact same strides as Mullentine Shalom. Mullentine has to slow down to do the numbers, Iranta’s foot speed it just faster. If you look at the results. I think Mullentine was 31 and some change, and most of the top eight were sitting at 31 seconds. Iranta was 29, her foot speed is just unmatched.”
Ballard utilized Iranta’s speed across the ground to her advantage to stop the clock at 29.580 seconds which held rank for the remainder of the class.
Ballard spoke about the speedy 10-year-old KWPN mare, “Iranta is new into our program. She is owned by Sydney Levy and her ultimate job is to be an U25 horse. Sydney comes next week to show, so I used this class to learn more about her rideability, and its nice prize money. This class was fantastic to learn more about the horse and develop her for Sydney for the future. She’s a super mare and I am excited to see their partnership develop.”
Kayla Savard and her own 12-year-old Selle Francais mare Bogota Nantuel (Dollar Dela Pierre x Ucarnute) found the second fastest time in 30.214 seconds to earn a spot on the podium.
Third place honors went to Abigail McArdle and I&H Boogy Woogy, a 17-year-old Hungarian gelding by Faldo x I&H Vanilla Fudge. The pair produced a tidy and clean round in 30.288 seconds to land in the top three.
$10,000 Buckeye Nutrition Futures Prix Results:
1 Iranta, Erynn Ballard, Sydney Levy: 0 | 0 | 29.580
2 Bogota Nantuel, Kayla Savard, Kayla Savard: 0 | 0 | 30.214
3 I&H Boogy Woogy, Abigail McArdle, Abigail McArdle: 0 | 0 | 30.288
4 Great Thing, Ali Wagstaff, Inc. Mill Pond Farm: 0 | 0 | 30.376
5 Cadans Van De Ijzervallei, Gonzalo Busca, Gonzalo Busca: 0 | 0 | 31.011
6 Duran Duran, Richie Maloney, Equinimity LLC: 0 | 0 | 31.365
7 Kabuki, Alberto Michan, Maeve O’Connor: 0 | 0 | 31.558
8 Mullentine Shalom, Erynn Ballard, Ilan Ferder: 0 | 0 | 31.640
9 Can Talk To Me TD MTM, Tracy Fenney, MTM Farm: 0 | 0 | 31.921
10 Cassiopeia 119, Nelton Marcon, Nelton Marcon: 0 | 0 | 32.036
For final results visit HorseShowing.com or Ryegate.Live.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Ryback Photography.
Videos available at ClipMyHorse.TV