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David Beisel and Irish Hunt Have Repeat Performance in $10,000 Positive Step Farm Welcome Prix at Horse Shows by the Bay II

Written by: Chrissy Lane
Client: Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc.
Release Date: 2007-07-27

Traverse City, MI – July 27, 2007 – Hector Loyola's $10,000 Welcome Prix course stumped numerous riders this afternoon at Horse Shows by the Bay II, but David Beisel successfully navigated the technical course to bring home the victory with Irish Hunt. Today's class was sponsored by Positive Step Farm.

Owned by Carlie Beisel, Irish Hunt is an 11-year-old thoroughbred gelding that Beisel has ridden for about two years. The pair also won in yesterday's $3,000 NAL Open Speed class, which clearly prepped them for today's competition Jill Knowles and Timberley finished in second place with four faults and a time of 46.043, while Sky King and Larry Hollahan took third with a speedy time of 41.689 seconds and eight faults. Erin Haas rode Chianti 67 to fourth place, and Beisel finished in fifth with another mount, Patoile. Sixth place went to Gabrielle Stern and Olyna.

Only four horse and rider combinations – Beisel, Knowles, Hollahan and Haas – out of the 16 total entries had a double clean first round to advance to the jump-off. However, no pair could leave all of the rails up in the jump-off, and Beisel, who rode Irish Hunt as the second of three mounts in the class, finished with four faults and a time of 43.061 seconds for first place.

Loyola designed today's course, which was composed of 12 numbered obstacles and a total of 15 jumping efforts, including a liverpool and a triple combination. The time allowed was originally set at 78 seconds but was extended to 82 seconds. The course began with an oxer set in the far edge of the ring and continued to fence 2, the Team Elmer's vertical. Riders then made a right hand turn to 3, an oxer, and 4, a vertical. A rollback turn to the left followed to a oxer that was followed by a one-stride combination, 6A and 6B. The combination was set on a bending line that would be ridden in a long five strides or a short six strides, although Loyola intended for riders to do the short six. Two riders missed their distances and had refusals at 6A. The D-BRAIDER oxer, 7, followed and then the course rolled back to 8, the liverpool, which was followed by 9A, 9B and 9C, the triple. An oxer at fence 10 was set four to five strides off the triple, which was followed by a tight left hand turn to 11, and riders finished over fence 12, a skinny white vertical.

Of Irish Hunt and today's class, Beisel said: “He even better today. The course was tough enough. It wasn't built really big, but it sure rode big. I thought it was very technical, and turny and twisty enough to keep you on your toes. The jumps came up quick enough, so they rode a little bigger than they were.”

He continued, explaining the areas of the course that he was concerned about. “(Fences) one, two, three, four were all off of funny turns, and then doing the seven to the first combination. The rest of it was pretty straight forward, and the last five to the skinny was tough,” Beisel said. (In the jump-off), I wanted to just try to be clear. One to two, I planned on the five again and got a little lucky when he jumped to the right, tried not to be too quick to the vertical, then he turned back really nice to the in-and-out, and he was good back to the liverpool again and then I took a shot at the last one.”

Competition will resume on Saturday morning, and the highlight of the weekend is the $25,000 grand prix on Sunday afternoon. For more information, please visit www.horsesportsbythebay.com.

For complete results, please visit www.horseshowing.com.