Grandioso and Courtney King-Dye Finish Fifth in USEF Dressage Festival of Champions

Nothing but rain for the Festival parade! This year's 2009 Festival of Champions at Gladstone will be remembered for the persistent bad weather and the controversial decision to cancel classes on the final day. The first day's cancellations must have been a bad omen for the weather report the rest of the weekend, and the unseasonably cold and dreary weather never seemed to let up. This, however, didn't dampen the performances of the riders in all of the championship classes, and especially the Intermediare 1 Championship which had strong leaders in the first two places and a very competitive group vying for the next few spots. Unfortunately, with the Freestyle was canceled, Grandioso and Courtney did not have a chance to repeat their strong performance from their first CDI in Wellington when they won the Freestyle with over 72%. Nevertheless, their Prix St. George and Inter 1 tests were impressive and competitive. Courtney drew the first ride of the championship and opened the class with 70.684% at the PSG on Friday. The Inter 1 on Saturday started very strong but troubles in the pirouettes brought the score down slightly to 69.789. The combination of the two scores gave the pair their closely contested ranking of Fifth Place out of 13 for the weekend. All of us at HGF are so proud of both of them for doing so well in the face of the best small tour competition in the country and we congratulate winners Katherine, Jan, and all the other riders on a great show, in spite of somewhat soggy conditions, and the excellent job they all did. It was a privilege to be counted among them!
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( . . . more photos to come from Gladstone when Mary Phelps returns from Aachen!)