Ocala, FL – A beautiful, sunny Florida morning set the scene for the $50,000 Stella Artois National Grand Prix, where 20 horse-and-rider combinations vied for top honors. In a nail-biting 12-horse jump-off, it was Todd Minikus (USA) who piloted Spirit Group’s Kiekeboe Spirit (Darius x Lolita Mh) to a blazing fast victory.
Ireland’s Colm Quinn once again laid the tracks in the WEC Grand Arena. Twelve returned for the jump-off, but only six managed to deliver double-clear efforts.
The first clear round came from Paul O’Shea (IRL) aboard Primo Cbi Cornet, setting the pace at 40.100 seconds. Several competitors attempted to chase down the time, but it wasn’t until Sharn Wordley (NZL) stepped in that the lead changed. Wordley, hoping to keep his Sunday streak alive, guided Della Wordley’s Hagelin (Stolzenberg x Graefin Top), a 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding, to a sharp, speedy round, taking over the top spot by seven-tenths of a second in 39.371 seconds.
O’Shea returned with his second mount, Squirt Gun (Diarado x Sarastra Star), a 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Team Eye Candy. The pair delivered a smart, efficient trip to stop the clock at 39.635 seconds, just three-tenths of a second behind Wordley.
But the day belonged to Todd Minikus, who had the advantage of going second-to-last in the jump-off. “Tracy Fenney is always freaky fast, and Sharn Wordley is always quick, so I watched their numbers,” said Minikus. “Lucky enough, I got to go after them. They were doing 11 from one to two, then the tight rollback, then 10 across to the black oxer. I really don’t count in the jump-off, but my wife told me I did nine from one to two, which is two less than everyone else. I was thinking 10, but somehow I did nine,” he laughed. “Then I did nine across the middle. He turned well back to the combination—I was inside everyone’s footprints. Everyone was doing eight to the last, and I did seven.”
With all the leave-outs, Minikus and the 10-year-old AES gelding blazed through the timers in 37.964 seconds, more than a second faster than Wordley, to take the win. Wordley settled for second, while O’Shea claimed third with Squirt Gun and fourth aboard Primo Cbi Cornet.
Although Kiekeboe Spirit is a large horse, Minikus shared that he rides quite lightly.
“The cover of the book doesn’t really read the same,” he laughed. “He’s sensitive and bloody—at times he can take things a little personally, and you can hurt his feelings if you aren’t careful. But today worked out. Team Minikus put in a great effort, and my wife even drove up to make sure I do things right.”
Minikus has spent most of the summer competing at World Equestrian Center – Ocala and shared high praise for the venue: “Obviously, there’s no place like it in the whole world. We’ve been fortunate enough to go to a lot of places, and there is nothing like this. The Roberts have done an out-of-this-world job. The whole team here is very comprehensive about what they’re doing, and it’s just incredible.
$50,000 Stella Artois National Grand Prix Results
Explore the daily class schedule, orders of go, class counts, and final results on HorseShowing.com. For real-time scoring, check out Ryegate.Live.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Ryback Photography.
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