Ireland’s Conor Swail can be counted on to crank up the speed, and on Thursday evening, he and Count Me In (breeder: Friedrich Lüssmann) did just that, racing to the win in the $39,000 CSI4*-W 1.50m Las Vegas National “All In” Speed Classic at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas, NV.
Swail and the 17-year-old Hanoverian gelding were the 26th of 42 entries to take on the speed track designed by Olaf Petersen Jr., and Swail had the slight advantage of having already navigated the course on his first mount, Vital Chance de la Roque.
While Swail had one rail down on “Vinny,” his quick time of 60.68 seconds was something he wanted to emulate with Count Me In.
“I was trying to sort of replicate that round because it was a good one, even though I just had one little mistake,” explained Swail.
Swail did not replicate his time in that round. Instead, he bettered it, stopping the clock in 60.01 seconds to take the win. Finishing just behind Swail with a time of 60.36 seconds was the USA’s Charlotte Jacobs aboard Rincoola Milsean (Aldatus, breeder: Harold McGahern) in her debut trip to the Las Vegas National CSI4*-W. Rounding out the top three were Jill Humphrey (USA) and Chromatic BF( Connor, breeder:Branscomb Farms LLC) on a time of 62.06 seconds, and Canada’s Vanessa Mannix took fourth place in 63.25 seconds with her own Lehar.
“Count Me In is a wonderful horse; he’s one of the best horses I’ve ever ridden,” said Swail of the gelding best known as “Crosby” in the barn. “He’s quite grumpy actually when he’s in the stables, so you have to leave him alone and let him do his own thing in the stall, but when he comes out, he knows his job. He gets on with it. He’s a prolific winner.”
