It takes the highest degree of skill to earn consistently impressive performances from horse after horse, but that's exactly what Todd Minikus did in the $30,000 Grand Prix of Princeton during the August 19-23 Princeton Show Jumping competition at Hunters Run North in Skillman, New Jersey. The career winner of more than 75 international Grand Prix titles and 2007 Pan American Games Show Jumping Team Bronze medalist clinched three of the top ten slots in the Grand Prix of Princeton. Minikus finished second on Cordonos, for local owner Matthew Degrande of Long Valley, NJ; third on the 2014 United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) Champion Jumper, Quality Girl, for the 2014 USHJA Owner of the Year, The Quality Group; and sixth with rising new talent, 11-year-old KWPN gelding Paratrooper, owned by Lori Custer. “I only first sat on the horse about a week ago,” Minikus said with a grin after accepting his ribbon on Paratrooper. This Grand Prix marked the duo’s second top ten finish in Princeton after placing eighth in the $10,000 Welcome Stake 1.40m. Minikus was also fifth overall in the Welcome Stake on Cordonos, who he will next compete on in the 2015 Hampton Classic in Bridgehampton, New York, later this week. After that, Minikus will be defending his title with Quality Girl in the Canadian Pacific $1 Million FEI CSI5* Grand Prix. “I was really pleased with Quality Girl and her performance in Princeton, as she has not shown since Spruce Meadows. I used this as a warm-up leading to the $1 Million in Saugerties, which Quality Girl won last year,” explained Minikus.
It takes the highest degree of skill to earn consistently impressive performances from horse after horse, but that's exactly what Todd Minikus did in the $30,000 Grand Prix of Princeton during the August 19-23 Princeton Show Jumping competition at Hunters Run North in Skillman, New Jersey. The career winner of more than 75 international Grand Prix titles and 2007 Pan American Games Show Jumping Team Bronze medalist clinched three of the top ten slots in the Grand Prix of Princeton. Minikus finished second on Cordonos, for local owner Matthew Degrande of Long Valley, NJ; third on the 2014 United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) Champion Jumper, Quality Girl, for the 2014 USHJA Owner of the Year, The Quality Group; and sixth with rising new talent, 11-year-old KWPN gelding Paratrooper, owned by Lori Custer. “I only first sat on the horse about a week ago,” Minikus said with a grin after accepting his ribbon on Paratrooper. This Grand Prix marked the duo’s second top ten finish in Princeton after placing eighth in the $10,000 Welcome Stake 1.40m. Minikus was also fifth overall in the Welcome Stake on Cordonos, who he will next compete on in the 2015 Hampton Classic in Bridgehampton, New York, later this week. After that, Minikus will be defending his title with Quality Girl in the Canadian Pacific $1 Million FEI CSI5* Grand Prix. “I was really pleased with Quality Girl and her performance in Princeton, as she has not shown since Spruce Meadows. I used this as a warm-up leading to the $1 Million in Saugerties, which Quality Girl won last year,” explained Minikus.