After spending over an hour with Hawley Bennet and Gin & Juice winning, the Galway scores have been officially reversed, giving the victory to Alexandra Slusher and Last Call. The word from the Galway secretary office is that Ali and Last Call left the start box 2 seconds early, and they were originally given 5 seconds worth of time penalties because a false start is 2 time penalties under national competition laws. However, the FEI rules do not have the same false start penalty rule and, since it was a CIC3* division, the two penalties do not apply. I spoke with Hawley and she explained to me that under FEI rules there is no penalty for leaving the box early without the demonstrated intent to get a head start. The two penalties have been taken away, giving Ali the lead and moving Hawley and Gin & Juice into second.
As I mentioned earlier, Ali is a student of Hawley’s so the final scores are just a formality among friends, and the important thing is that the final final scores are correct according to the rules. Hawley had a tremendous weekend and also won the CIC2* on Gin & Juice’s full brother. I’m off to watch some college basketball and, unless there is another scoring reversal giving Jimmy Wofford the Galway win, Coren has EN under control until the morning. Go eventing.
