Cathleen Driscoll Can't Stop Winning in Traverse City

Cathleen Driscoll (USA) continued her fierce winning streak in international competition Friday afternoon at the Silver Oak Jumper Tournament, winning the $38,700 GGT CSI3* Welcome Stake and further solidifying her lead on the Open Jumper Rider Leaderboard at Flintfields Horse Park.

With Arome, a 13-year-old Selle Français gelding (Norway De La Lande x Attila III), Driscoll bested an 11-horse jump-off with over a second to spare over second-place finisher Francisco Goyoaga Mollet (ESP) with Icarus. Grace Debney (GBR) and Jesprit H.S. finished just a hair behind Goyoaga Mollet to finish third. Driscoll’s gutsy slice to the Silver Oak Jumper Tournament oxer in the jump-off helped save precious time and secure the win as the class came to a close.

“I’ve been with Arome for about two years now and we’ve built a great partnership together,” she said of the horse owned by Plain Bay Farm. “I’ve jumped five-stars and Nations Cup competitions on him, and we’ve learned a lot together. I can call on him and trust that he’ll do right by me. He is becoming a super competitive horse. In the beginning he wasn’t so fast but now he’s learning to be fast and tidy.”

Arome certainly came through for Driscoll Friday when asked to take on a challenging slice, but it’s actually a move Driscoll practices quite often at home so she can execute in the show ring.

“I have a background in eventing, so I’m very comfortable on the slice,” Driscoll said of her past working for several eventing stables near her home base in Maryland. “That’s something we school a lot with the event horses and I’ve carried over into my training with the show jumpers. You see [fences to slice] so often in the jump-offs and I find it’s a place where you can make up a lot of time if you have a horse that’s good on the slice.”