Historical Event Reports: Radnor 1990

Once again we step into Marty's Delorean and fire up the flux capacitor, this time with the date set to USCTA NEWS December 1990 (Editor, Fifi Coles).  Read, reminisce, and enjoy!
Once again, ALL CREDIT due towards the wonderful folks at USCTA who first produced this article.  Any errors or typos are probably due to my re-typing skills, and are not the fault of the original writer or editor.   



Stephen Bradley shed his up-and-coming event rider label and stepped squarely into the spotlight by winning the Radnor Hunt CCI* and National Intermediate Championships, October 11-14, in Malvern, PA.  Bradley, 28, and Sassy Reason, a promising nine-year-old Thoroughbred owned by Ann Mills of Atlanta, Georgia, bested a field of 50, including his long-time coach and mentor Bruce Davidson, who finished second aboard Mr. and Mrs. Elkins Wetherill's Regent Lion. 

 

Mills bought the 16.2 hand bay Thoroughbred off the track and competed him through the Preliminary level before giving the reins to Bradley last spring.  The new partnership found immediate success that culminated in a preliminary-level win at the Essex Three-Day Event in May, where Davidson and Regent Lion, ironically, finished second.  Bradley and Sassy Reason moved to the Intermediate level this Fall, finishing second at both the Pleasant Hollow and Loudon Horse Trials.

 

At Radnor, the pair's best dressage test to date left them lying second to Real Pip and Torrance Watkins.  But dressage played only a minor role in the year's Radnor, where cross-country shuffled the scoreboard and proved the pinnacle test of the weekend.

 

To upgrade the existing CCA course to one-star CCI standard, course designer Jimmy Wofford added several new questions, almost all of them technical in nature.  The Network Coffin (fence 19ABCD), and corner options at 13 and 14 claimed many victims, with slick footing and hot, humid weather conditions adding to the problems.  Perhaps the course's technical nature broke up the horse's rhythm, resulting in fatigue; perhaps the weather was just too hot; perhaps the deep going took its toll.  Whatever the cause, time faults were the order of the day and only nine horses jumped without penalties.  Yet the top finishers jumped around with apparent ease, albeit slowly, proving that in a Three-Day Event, generalizations about the courses and conditions can be shaken askew by one bold, feisty horse like Sassy Reason, who looked ready to run around again at the course's end.

 

Torrance and Real Pip retired at the coffin, while Stephen moved into the lead, but the next few placings showed dramatic changes from Friday's standings.  Bruce Davidson and Regent Lion, a 6-year-old half-brother to Pirate Lion, the Bronze Medal winner at Stockholm, rose to second after finishing 15^th in dressage, and Californian Valerie Williams and R.H. Davis Co. Handsome Reward moved to third after finishing 24^th in dressage.  In fourth place, after a strong cross-country round, was Dorothy Trapp and Molokai, who had been 37^th after dressage.

 

Sunday's demanding show jumping course tested the remaining competitors, with few clear rounds up to the top four.  Anything could still happen, and Molokai looked headed for a clean score before hitting a big oxer at the course's end.  Then Handsome Reward, Regent Lion, and Sassy Reason jumped three textbook clear rounds to the delight of the spectators and vast applause, with Sassy Reason looking particularly fit, keen, and happy.

 

Stephen's impressive win bodes well for the future, when his partnership with Sassy Reason will move on to greater challenges next spring.  Meantime, Regent Lion added prestige to his reserve finish by winning the Prix de Veterinaire trophy for the best conditioned horse.

 

Valerie Williams, 29, who trains and teaches out of her Deckerlynne Farm in Lincoln, CA, overcame many personal and competitive obstacles to finish behind Stephen Bradley and Bruce Davidson.  She and her partner of three years, the 9-year-old Thoroughbred R.H> Davis Co. Handsome Reward, have competed successfully on the west coast, earning Horse of the Year honors for Area VI in 1989 at the Intermediate level.  But their long trek to Radnor last year proved disappointing, as Handsome Reward tied up in the vet box and had to be withdrawn.  This year, Valerie traveled east six weeks before Radnor to train with Jimmy Wofford and Torrance Watkins.  Her perseverance paid off, as the pair posted the fastest cross-country time of the day, with 10.8 penalties.

 

 

PRELIMINARY

 

25-year-old John Williams of Honeoye Falls, NY found himself in the Radnor winner's enclosure for the second time as he accepted honors for Preliminary Division B.  He spent some time there two years ago when he won the CCA aboard Gold Rush.  This time his partner was an 8-year-old Thoroughbred, Bailey, in his first Three-Day Event, whom John purchased with the money he earned from selling Gold Rush two years before.

 

Ritch Temple designed a lovely straightforward and inviting Preliminary course for Radnor, but the humidity took its toll and time faults were considerable.  Not so for Bailey, however, who blasted around 25 seconds under the optimum time, clinching the first-place spot after finishing fourth in dressage.  A clear show jumping round on Sunday gave him the win over Josh Walther and Off the Cuff.

 

In Preliminary Division A, Mike Plumb and Abigail Lufkin's 7-year-old English-bred, Lighter Than Air, didn't give anyone a chance to catch them, holding their lead from dressage day through the weekend.  Plumb and Lighter Than Air had won a Preliminary division at Ledyard the weekend before Radnor, and had also placed second in the Eastern DeBroke National Preliminary Championships at Millbrook.

 

Heidi Stuart Vahue and her young Dutch Warmblood, Enskadey, finished right behind, just as they had at the Eastern DeBroke, where they finished third.  "I just can't seem to catch that Mike Plumb!" laughed Vahue, who deservedly seemed pleased with her mount's promising finish in his first Three-Day Event.

 

The Division C win by Kip Holloway of Manakin-Sabot, VA, ought to give every adult amateur event rider something to cheer about.  Formerly competing up to the Intermediate level, Holloway took time off from the sport to raise her young daughter, work her full-time job in the insurance industry, and support her husband in vet school  She bought Castleton as a completely unbroken three-year-old five years ago and has brought him to Preliminary level, returning to an active competition schedule this year.  Castleton finished ninth after dressage before Kip piloted him to a clear and fast cross-country round, leaving them in third; a clean stadium round gave them the win.  Holloway's grooms for the Event included her mother-in-law and her husband, while her two-year-old daughter lent valuable moral support throughout the weekend.