Saturday's $75,000 Grand Prix

Today's 1.50m Grand Prix began with a more somber crowd than we have seen the past few days. Perhaps it was because the show jumpers had moved to the noon daytime slot, but the austereness quickly ended when Rich Fellers waltzed in the ring on Kilkenny Rindo. Rich established himself as the favorite of the crowd earlier in the week with spectacular performances on Flexible, and the crowd appreciated his efforts when he came in on Kilkenny.

Prior to Rich's arrival, most of the competitors put in nice rounds, but 63% of them had trouble with the middle element of the triple combination and quite a few faced difficulties at the Liverpool. Even darling Ashlee Bond had difficulty with both these jumps, but then switched in to high gear and finished fantastically on mount Chivas Z. If it wasn't the challenging course that gave the competitors difficulty, it was the time to complete it. Michelle Spadone rode the course beautifully, but had one time fault, as did California favorite Jill Humphrey.

Richard Spooner rode with his typical coolness, but had the poor luck of a vertical down. He then picked up the pace to become the fastest four faulter and still place in the ribbons at the 8th spot.

Only 6 riders made it to the jump off. Impressive Luara Teodori, a mere 19 years old, endured a big knock down at the difficult Las Vegas jump. Prince Abdullah Al-Saud and his beautiful mount had a lovely clean round, and left the ring in the lead. That is until Rich Fellers entered to a crowd screaming and jeering. Rich did not disappoint, and finished the round quickest and certainly most exciting, to an audience that was then on their feet giving him a standing ovation.

Although this course was not as large as yesterday's 1.60m, the horse/rider combinations we have come to know and love made the event every bit as exciting as we have come to expect from the World Cup finals.