Holly Jacks and Josephine. Photo by Ben Radvanyi.
Holly Jacks, riding in honor of Zara Buren, took home the win Saturday evening in the Horseware Indoor Eventing Challenge at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, held annually in Toronto. Riding Donna von Beek’s 9-year-old Thoroughbred/Swedish Warmblood mare, Josephine, Holly picked up 5 penalties in the first round on Friday but added nothing over Saturday’s final course, designed by Capt. Mark Phillips, to take the overall win.
“It’s so fantastic to be back at the Royal,” Holly said [read more from the action on Saturday here]. “It’s a community here, and I have a lot of students that showed up to watch me ride in memory of Zara. It was amazing and the crowd was electric. It was a lot of fun.”
“She is a pretty exciting horse for the future,” Holly continued. “She’s very classy. She’s always been a spooky horse, but I think her bravery tonight just shows that she’s going to step up to be a fabulous horse for Canada in the future. I’m really excited to have had the opportunity to ride her here tonight.”
Waylon Roberts and Sher Schwartz’s Holsteiner mare, CS Carrera, took the lead after the first round with a clear round, edging ahead of Kendal Lehari and her own Audacious by just a few tenths of a second. Both would go on to add penalties in Saturday’s final, but finished in the top five. In between them is a familiar face: none other than multiple Olympic gold medalist and 5* winner Michael Jung!
Michael Jung and Renegade. Photo by Ben Radvanyi.
Michael took the reins on a borrowed ride, Emma Saraullo’s Renegade, Michael moved up to finish in third overall with 10 penalties added across the two phases.
Final results for the Horseware Indoor Eventing Challenge can be viewed here. Also a part of the evening was Colleen Loach’s receipt of the Michael Gutowski Award, given to the Canadian event rider with the highest FEI points of the 2022 season.
You are able to watch competitions, excluding Longines FEI World Cup events, live and on demand for a one-time fee of $39.95 CAD / $29.63 USD which can be purchased here.
Enjoy a few social media snapshots from a fun two evenings, and don’t forget to follow along with the rest of the RAWF action here.
Indoor Eventing The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair course. Opening night saw 15 efforts.
Posted by Veronica Low on Friday, November 4, 2022
Night 2 of The Horseware Eventing Challenge – full house Saturday night and crowd service enjoying the competition
Posted by Deirdre Vaillancourt Aiken SC Properties on Saturday, November 5, 2022
The course for the second night The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
Posted by Veronica Low on Saturday, November 5, 2022
It was an honour to ride Donna Van Beeks mare Josephine last night in the indoor eventing in memory of Zara Buren❤️
It…Posted by Holly Jacks-Smither on Saturday, November 5, 2022
Opening night of the centennial celebration of the #RoyalHorseShow kicked off with the Horseware® Indoor Eventing…
Posted by The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair on Saturday, November 5, 2022
