For David Beisel, the Bluegrass Festival Horse Show holds incredible memories, yet there is one in particular that stands out for him. It was three years ago exactly that David Beisel and Ammeretto, owned by Equine Holdings, LLC, entered into only the second grand prix of their show jumping partnership during the week of the USHJA Hunter Derby Finals, and they won. Friday night, under the lights of the Rolex Stadium, it was déjà vu for Beisel as he entered into a 12-horse jump-off with the small but mighty warmblood stallion, winning the $25,000 Hagyard Lexington Classic, presented by Zoetis. "Before the jump-off, as I was getting ready to go over the course, I was thinking to myself that it was three years ago that he competed his second grand prix, and now, here were are," Beisel smiled. "I knew that if I had a little faith in him, and with the good partnership we have now, that it all would work, and it did." Out of a field of 47 horse and rider combinations, Beisel and Ammeretto rose to the top of the leader board, besting 11 fellow contenders during an exceptionally fast jump-off. Shane Sweetnam and Easy Contact Humlan, owned by Sweet Oak Farm, were the first to tackle the shortened course, designed by Allen Rheinheimer. Although they posted the quick time of 40.487 seconds, he left the door open just enough to let Beisel take his shot. Beisel sat ringside during the course change, observing Rheinheimer's changes to the track. He noted that deeper cups were added to the skinny, warranting a tight turn back, and the black oxer originally the 11th obstacle of the opening track was narrowed, allowing for a tight rollback. It was the race to the final oxer with Ammeretto that would have spectators on the edge of their seats. "I knew I really had to take a shot to the last one," Beisel explained. "Allen had made the black oxer quite narrow, and I hoped to turn back as tight as I could and trust that he would hop over it. It didn't come up exactly how I would imagine, but he gave a huge effort. I tried to be smooth to the in-and-out and then trusted him to fly to the Hagyard. He did just that." $25,000 HAGYARD LEXINGTON CLASSIC RESULTS Pl Nbr Horse Rider First Round Faults Time Jump-Off Faults Time 1 1651 AMMERETTO DAVID BEISEL 80.284 38.229 2 1686 EREGAST VAN'T KISHANE SWEETNAM 80.675 38.332 3 1909 BOY IV EMANUEL ANDRADE 81.122 39.962 4 1847EASY CONTACT HUMSHANE SWEETNAM 77.563 40.487 5 1231 ECHO VON T SPIEVVICTORIA COLVIN 81.285 42.645 6 548 LADY MARIA BH AMANDA DERBYSHIRE 81.898 48.232 7 1930 BLACK DIAMOND KRIS KILLAM 81.280 4 41.050 8 294 AIMEE PETER WYLDE 79.098 4 41.439 9 252 RAINO DU JARDIN JUAN CARLOS MAURIN 83.983 4 42.296 10 279 CHAMONIX H KELLI CRUCIOTTI 82.180 4 43.594 11 796 ZERRO LEONE MARTIEN VAN DER HOEVE 84.468 6 50.540 12 1905 CLOUWNI EMANUEL ANDRADE 81.816