Capturing the first place finish was no easy feat during Saturday night’s $85,000 Mary Rena Murphy Grand Prix, sponsored by Audi of Lexington. Forty-four starters contended for the lion’s share of the earnings in the FEI CSI2* event, but when nine qualified for the jump-off, it came down to the wire. Besting the clock and the short course was Aaron Vale aboard Quidam’s Good Luck, tripping the timers in 37.800 seconds for the first place finish. Charlie Jayne and Valeska followed closely in second with a clear effort in 39.29 seconds, while Andrew Welles and Boo van het Kastanjehof earned the third place in 39.610 seconds. Richard Jeffery of Bournemouth, England, set an inviting course for the CSI2* event at the Kentucky Horse Park. The first round included an open water option, a vertical-oxer double combination, and a tricky oxer-vertical-oxer triple combination. Nine were able to traverse the track and advance to the jump-off, where speed and accuracy could not be compensated in the attempt to win. Eventual winner Aaron Vale said of the course, “Richard [Jeffery] is a master. I know he could only build to 1.45m specs, so his hands were tied a little bit, but he did a beautiful job with this class, as well as the Hagyard Classic on Thursday. I had just a green rail the other night with Quidam, but it was probably a blessing that I didn’t go in that jump-off. Everything works out the way it is supposed to. I may not have had the brain available tonight that I did for this class had I made it into that jump-off. We got the bigger purse, so it all worked out for us.” Only four of the nine were able to ride both courses without fault. Jayne was second in the order to return, and set the pace at a speedy 39.29 seconds as he broke the beam with no faults.
