After yielding 30 competitors from Friday night's Surfside Grand Prix, presented by Hunt+iJump, 29 ended up joining for the Saturday night fun for the Grand Prix of Del Mar! The bustling crowd was energetic and the horses and riders could feel the excitement throughout the Del Mar Arena. It was a battle of accuracy, as the course, designed by Olaf Petersen, kept the riders and their mounts on their toes-or hooves-with the course containing a tight roll back to the colorful Lego Jump to a bending line to the impressive triple bar and the riders finished with a bending line from the liverpool to a two stride combination right on the rail. The level of competition was at an all time high with world-class riders such as Richard Spooner, Richard Fellers, Eduardo Menezes, Eric Navet, Karl Cook and others as they went head to head in this well laid out course. Only six pairs progressed to the jump-off, which was an annotated course that finished with a lengthy gallop to part B of the two stride combination that finished the initial course. Both horses and riders knew they were up against incredible competition and if they were to win the class, they would have to not only be fast, they would have to go clean. Menezes and Quintol, who won the Surfside Grand Prix on Friday night with another mount, came in with a tight, clean round at 43.234, with Navet and Jonkheer Z not far behind in time, at 43.953, but with an unfortunate rail. Elicia Edgar and Cipolini VD Gastheuv were a bit more conservative with their time at 49.806 and one rail down. It came down to Spooner, the ultimate Master of Faster, with his mounts Chivas Z and Cristallo and Fellers, on crowd favorite Flexible. Chivas Z and Spooner put up a quick, clean round with a time of 42.177, the elegant grey Zangersheide gelding making the course look easy. Fellers and Flexible looked happy tackling the course in the large Del Mar Arena, just coming out of the Longines FEI World Cup Finals with a respectable seventh place finish in Las Vegas, NV. Not only did the 19 year old Irish Sporthorse Stallion look happy, he smoked his competition with a clean round in a time of 40.303! The time was tough and Spooner knew that when he walked back into the ring on his second ride, Cristallo, and the last round in the jump-off. The beautiful bay Holsteiner gelding and Spooner left it all in the arena, keeping the tidiest track we saw all evening and a galloping pace that kept the crowd on the edge of their seats! They flew threw the final timers, fault free, and shut out the rest of the competition with an incredible time of 38.754!
