Aaron Vale and Serval, owned by The Serval Group, led the victory gallop in the $25,000 HITS Ocala Grand Prix on Sunday, posting the only double-clear round out of a class of twenty-two horse/rider combinations. Jerry Dougherty set a first round course that saw only four riders advance to the Jump-Off. "This was close to the result I was expecting," said Dougherty. "It's still early in the year and this was the first Grand Prix for a lot of the horses."
Derek Petersen opened the Jump-Off round with Heaven Bound, a 10-year-old former Dressage horse he brought over from Germany in 2004. Derek has been training Heaven Bound for a year and a half and this is his first seasonat the Grand Prix level. Derek's wife Anita didn't see any potential in the horse when they first saw him and quite bluntly told her husband, "you are crazy to buy this horse." His response was, "you just wait, I'm going to work on his front end and we'll have something then."
The training has obviously paid off and it looks like Derek Petersen does really have something. Had it not been for an unlucky rail at the last, Petersen might have won the competition with Heaven Bound. His lightning-fast time of 45.31 seconds was the fastest time of the competition. Instead he had to settle for second place.
Overall Derek Petersen had a very successful second week at HITS Ocala. He won Thursday's $15,000 Mini Prix with another horse he owns, Cisco, an eight-year-old stallion.
Libby McKinney and Gun Du Desfi suffered the same fate as Petersen, also pulling the last rail in their Jump-Off round. McKinney's more conservative time of 48.49 seconds still wasn't the answer.
Aaron Vale took to the ring with Serval and set out to ride the delicate balance between clean and fast. "Aaron Vale is just a very slick rider, and played it just right," commented course designer Jerry Dougherty. "The fastest horse (Heaven Bound and Derek Petersen) had gone and had a rail down. Aaron knew he had to be quick enough because Callan Solem was going last behind him, and she certainly has the ability to go fast." Vale ended up with the only double-clear in the class, posting a time of 47.23 seconds for the win.
Aaron Vale got to see Derek Petersen's round and was impressed with his speed. "As I saw him coming down to the last jump I knew if he left it up he would win the class. The horse jumped it and he had a rub at the front, and then he trailed his hind end and actually knocked it down from behind. So I thought, well, at least we have a chance now. My horse is brand new and I wouldn't have known him well enough to beat Derek's time. Going in my plan was to be as quick as I could be without taking any big chances on a strange horse, and then try to leave the last jump up. We were able to do it, so it ended up a good result for us."
Callan Solem and Haiti Du Serein finished out the competition with an eight-fault performance in 54.40 seconds.
Serval was bought by a syndicate, The Serval Group, and arrived in the U.S. from Germany last December. Aaron Vale is still getting to know Serval, and so far he is very pleased with his performance. He is an eleven-year-old and has competed over in Europe with some moderate success. "So far it looks like we're starting out ok," said Vale. "There are just a few edges I need to clean up on him, but I'm liking him pretty much already. He is at a nice age when you can go on an be competitive pretty quickly."
Aaron Vale also placed fifth in the competition on Centor Z, owned by Town Creek Investment, and sixth on Solitude's Jas, owned by Solitude Farm.
The next Grand Prix show jumping event at HITS Ocala will be the $25,000 HITS Ocala Grand Prix on Thursday, February 9. The $50,000 EMO Grand Prix will finish out the week on Sunday, February 12.
For complete horse show results please visit http://www.hitsshows.com.
