Press release from Split Rock Jumping Tour, edited by World of Showjumping

It was a magical Saturday afternoon for Jamie Sailor (USA) at the second annual Woodside Charity CSI2* as she delivered a crowd–pleasing victory and her first FEI Grand Prix win aboard Elizabeth Kilham’s Magic Mike (VDL Zapatero x VDL Indoctro) as the final combination in a nine-horse jump-off. Benefitting the venue, the Split Rock Jumping Tour (SRJT) event returned to The Horse Park at Woodside to highlight the $80,000 1.45m Grand Prix CSI2* alongside national jumper and hunter competition.

The Peter Holmes (CAN) and William Robertson (USA)-designed track saw Australia's Guy Thomas set the pace as first to go in the jump-off, delivering a solid double-clear in 40.99 seconds. However, his lead was short-lived with Karl Cook (USA) following immediately after aboard Heroes Kervec (Contendro I x HH Conrad) in a 39.27-second finish time. Several trips later, Cook returned with his second ride and FEI Welcome-winning mount, Home-Run (Spartacus TN x Concorde), for a new seat in the top spot, clocking in even quicker at 38.73 seconds. Between his two rides, Cook seemed to have a solid spot on the podium, but the three remaining female riders had other plans. 

It was an electrifying jump-off where the rounds seemed like they couldn't get any faster, yet each rider continued to deliver. The first of three remaining, Karrie Rufer (USA) and Shanroe Peeters (Dallas VDL x Condios), owned by Morning Star Sporthorses, LLC, entered next, claiming the new leading time of 38.66 seconds by just seven-hundredths of a second. The pair was immediately overtaken by Zume Gallaher (USA), who shaved nearly a second and a half off of the pace, riding Crescendo VHL (Connor 48 x Clarimo ASK), owned by Blue Gate Stables LLC to a new lead in 37.22 seconds. It was all left to Sailor who did just that, sailing around the course and across the final fence, to blast the already speedy paces with a finish time of 35.88 seconds, that ultimately took the win. Gallaher would finish in second place, followed by Rufer in third, while Cook took both fourth and fifth.

"[Magic Mike] is mostly a catch ride – I don’t ever train with him at home…so when I came into this week, I was just going to try to produce clear rounds," Sailor reflected on her plan. "After a clear in the first round, I thought I could just follow my original plan and go double-clear but be sixth or seventh [place] because it was so fast. Even a slow double-clear was still going to be lower in the ribbons so I thought I have nothing to lose."

"He was so with me," Sailor continued. "I don’t even know how we went that fast because everyone else was so fast. I’m on a high right now and I’m so happy with how [Magic Mike] jumped."

Following the completion of the Woodside Charity CSI2*, SRJT will head back to the East coast for two weeks in Lexington, Kentucky, in September before returning to California for the Santa Anita CSI3* and Santa Anita CSI5*-W in November.