The $35,000 1.45m Tryon Resort Speed Stake CSI 3* was a breeze for the USA's Todd Minikus and Bit by Bit Group's Amex Z, stopping the timers in 58.03 seconds to claim top honors Saturday morning ahead of their podium finish Saturday night. Their closest competitor, Rowan Willis (AUS) and Italian Gold van de Kruishoeve, a 2008 Belgian Warmblood mare owned by Samantha Buirs, put in a 61.68 second dash to take second, while Samuel Parot (CHI) and the Stransky's Mission Farms, Inc. entry Thriller P, a 2004 Swedish Warmblood stallion (Cardento x Lucky Light), rounded out the podium in third, clearing the course in 64.55 seconds.

Minikus and the 2009 Zangersheide mare (Andiamo Z x Landaris) have been together for about a year, so he was confident that she could tackle the course easily, Minikus explained. 

"It was a nice class. There were a couple speed demons out there and I felt fortunate to be able to nip them. There were a couple lines where you had the option of five or six strides and it's easy for that mare to do the leave-out stride, so I think that's where I got them," Minikus posited. "They were doing six and I could do five. There were a couple rollbacks where it looked like I was inside for their footprints, too, so it worked out."

"Well, somehow I end up with the same type of personality with the mares that I have in my life, so you gotta be on your tippy toes, a bit, and they're sensitive, let's say," Minikus revealed of his mount who was anything but tiptoeing around the course for the win.