Postcard: 2007 Devon Horse Show
Devon, Pa., June 1, 2007 -- Part of the Devon Horse Show's enormous charm is the way it remains essentially the same, year after year. Those who have missed a decade or two return to find it's as if time has stood still at this special enclave on Philadelphia's Main Line. The quaint tea sandwiches and fresh mint leaves for the ice tea are always available to satisfy hunger and thirst, ladies continue to wear impressively fancy straw hats, the omnipresent Devon blue and white color scheme is unchanged and the Thursday night grand prix is still a sellout.
In the venerable show's 111th edition, even the winners of the biggest prizes were no different than in 2006. McLain Ward took the $75,000 Budweiser Grand Prix of Devon for the second year in a row as he topped the class for the fifth time in his career, while Scott Stewart was Leading Hunter Rider for a record fifth time in a row. To save the engraving costs on the venerable silver trophy to which he has laid claim, they should just use ditto marks every year!
The script was certainly different, however, than it had been during 2006. While McLain triumphed last year in a rainstorm on a catch ride that he had never jumped until he entered the warm-up ring, this time he was aboard his Olympic and World Equestrian Games partner, Sapphire.
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And Scott faced a new and considerable challenge from California invader John French, with each man accounting for two of the five championships in the professional division.
But let me tell you first about the grand prix. It's usually the kick-off for the Thursday night program that packs in the spectators until there's no room left to move between the grandstand, with its box seats and signature towers, and the rail where benches are claimed many hours earlier by diehard fans.
One thing that was different this year was the order of go--for the classes, that is. Instead of starting with the grand prix at 7 p.m., we were treated to the "Devon at Sunset" formula, beginning with gaited, hackney pony and coaching classes. The grand prix was supposed to start at 8:40 p.m. to give competitors an equal chance under the sometimes tricky lights in the Dixon Oval.
Most of the standing-room-only crowd did stay for the entire grand prix, even though it began after 9 p.m. and didn't finish until nearly 11 p.m. on a weeknight. There's no crowd like a Devon crowd, and that's one of the things that has helped make this a place that's important to McLain
"For some reason, things go my way here," he said after his victory gallop. "Sometimes, the stars line up for you."
The stars obviously got very strict marching orders on McLain's behalf, starting when he put in a clean round but exceeded the 80-second time allowed, giving him a single time penalty. But course designer Olaf Petersen immediately adjusted the TA, as is his right after a few have jumped, and the new standard of 83 seconds left McLain and Sapphire, who had been second to go, fault-free.
Nearly half of the 28 starters had trouble at the sixth of 13 jumping efforts, the Sea World planks, while others ran into various difficulties. Kim Prince surprised everyone, including herself, when she fell off at the first fence as the usually reliable Marlou refused.
Carlos Boy, who had looked so good on Wednesday afternoon winning a class with Ken Berkley, was clean with a time penalty, as was Shandor, Patty Stovel's ride, who had won the Gold Cup when it was held here a few years ago. They wound up seventh and sixth respectively. The difficulty of the course could be measured by the fact that only one horse, Hidden Creek's Quervo Gold with Margie Engle, had a 4-fault trip in the first round, finishing eighth. The rest accumulated totals that ranged from 8 to 24, with four riders choosing to retire after racking up rails.
Only five made it into the jump-off. Three were predictable--Sapphire; Little Big Man ridden by Laura Chapot, another combination that has enjoyed much success here, and Margie Engle with the very veteran Hidden Creek's Perin. Joining them were Pato Muente, a Virginia-based Argentine who used to work with double gold Olympian Joe Fargis, and 21-year-old Michael Morrissey, the nephew of Gene Mische, who chairs Stadium Jumping Inc., producer of the Winter Equestrian Festival.
McLain had the unenviable task of going first in the tiebreaker. That meant he didn't have someone else's time to shoot for, and with speedball Laura riding after him, he had no choice but to make a difficult inside turn between fence 12B of the first round and the initial fence of the jump-off after he had cleared it.
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