The crowd had plenty to cheer about as Canadian rider John Pearce and his majestic grey mount Chianto sped to victory in the $30,000 SmartPak Grand Prix, presented by Zoetis, on Sunday.
With 10 making it into the jump-off from a field of 55 starters, there was no question that the final round would provide a fast and furious finish to HITS Desert Circuit IV. And it did. Pearce’s jump-off time of 39.56 seconds was less than a half-second faster than Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum’s 39.96 second-place finish on Octavia Farms’ Malou. In third, Mexico’s Enrique Gonzalez and his own Quilebo Du Tillard broke the beam at 40.97 seconds.
Saer Coulter of San Francisco, California, was fourth, clocking in at 41.458 seconds on Copernicus Stables’ Don VHP Z, and Jill Henselwood, another Canadian rider, with Juniper Farms’ New Idol Z were fifth with a jump-off time of 42.98 seconds.