Margie Engle and Royce Emerge Victorious in $137,000 CaptiveOne Advisors Grand Prix CSI3*

Traverse City, Mich. – Show jumping competition during Week VI of the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival (GLEF), presented by CaptiveOne Advisors, culminated Saturday afternoon with the highlight event of the week, the $137,000 CaptiveOne Advisors Grand Prix CSI3*. Twenty-eight athletes gathered at the Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel International Ring to make a bid for the win, but in the end it was veteran partners Margie Engle (USA) and Royce who topped a nine-horse jump-off to lead the lap of honor. Irish athletes Cormac Hanley with RMF Chacco Top and Paul O’Shea riding Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu rounded out the top three, placing second and third respectively.
Course designer Alan Wade (IRL) tested athletes right off the bat during the week’s highlight event with a 13-obstacle track that featured a triple bar to a vertical-oxer double combination as the third and fourth questions, followed later by an oxer-oxer-vertical triple combination. The course finished with a careful plank to the last oxer, with only nine advancing to the tiebreaker. For the jump-off, athletes had to make a tight roll back to the last two fences in the triple combination. The plank fence was changed to a standard pole for the jump-off, but after the oxer in the line athletes had to make another tight rollback to a final bending line featuring two new fences before galloping through the timers.
Hanley and RMF Chacco Taco, a 12-year-old Hanoverian stallion owned by Rushy Marsh Farm, were the pathfinders during the first round and repeated a clear effort during the jump-off. The speedy duo cleared the course in 37.53 seconds, forcing the other athletes to chase their time in order to move to the top of the leaderboard. Though Victoria Heurtematte (PAN) and Ali Wolff (USA) would try, they could not catch Hanley’s quick time to unseat him. O’Shea was ready to take his fellow countryman’s lead with Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu, a 14-year-old KWPN gelding owned by the Machu Picchu Partners. Turning to the final line, it looked like they were right on pace with a clear round, but they stopped the clock just two-tenths of a second slower than Hanley in 37.72 seconds.
Engle knew she would have to be quick with Royce, a 17-year-old stallion owned by the Gladewinds Partners LLC. While she did not have a chance to watch the others go, she worked hard to stay inside their turns, taking a big risk back to the double combination knowing that Royce could easily stretch out over the oxer. Her next rollback left her hot on Hanley’s heels and as she galloped down the last line, leaving out a stride to the final fence to fly through the timers in 36.76 seconds and capture the victory, leaving Hanley in second place and O’Shea in third place.
RESULTS
$137,000 CaptiveOne Advisors Grand Prix CSI3*
Place / Horse / Rider / Country / Owner / R1 Time | R1 Faults / R2 Time | R2 Faults
1. Royce / Margie Engle / USA / Gladwinds Partners LLC / 0 | 76.59 / 0 | 36.76
2. RMF Chacco Top / Cormac Hanley / IRL / Rushy Marsh Farm / 0 | 79.01 / 0 | 37.53
3. Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu / Paul O’Shea / Machu Picchu Partners LLC / IRL 0 | 75.78 / 0 | 37.72
4. Casall / Ali Wolff / USA / Blacklick Bend Farm / 0 | 77.62 / 0 | 38.84
5. Flying Dutchman / Victoria Heurtematte / PAN / Victoria Heurtematte / 0 | 78.65 / 0 | 40.90
6. Bugatti / Wilhelm Genn / GER / Eduardo Leon / 0 | 77.30 / 4 | 37.29
7. Calle Quinn / Luis Fernando Larrazabal / VEN / Ana Holguin / 0 | 77.53 / 8 | 38.76
8. Guschenka / Felipo Godinho Marcondes / BRA / Sergio Nieto Del Rio / 0 | 75.13 / RET
9. Chess / Nicholas Dello Joio / USA / Kent Farrington LLC / 1 | 80.41
10. Lutz / Ali Ramsay / CAN / Ramsay Equestrian Inc. / 1 | 81.06
11. Jamica van Kattebeek / Kendall Gath / USA / The Equine Platform / 2 | 84.80
12. Pandora / Rafael Torija Cervantes / MEX / SF Equestrian B.V. / 2 | 87.37
HSJ
www.traversecityhorseshows.com | Photo (Margie Engle and Royce) credits Andrew Ryback Photography