Kyle King aboard Paul Politeski’s talented 10 year old gelding Quigley, claimed the victory in the ACTC $33,500 CSI3* Classic sponsored by Dagmar Fortmuller.
Twenty-nine riders attempted the technical track set by course designer Werner Deeg. With such a strong set of riders competing at the Royal West, Werner set a fast technical track that challenged riders to start with a big open canter to clear the wide-set triple bar placed at the beginning of the course, and then to reorganize for the closer set related distances at the latter part of the track.
King felt he really benefited from having the opportunity to watch some of the earlier riders in the class. “I got to go at the end, and was able to watch a bunch go which was a huge advantage for us. I noticed the rails were coming down everywhere; there wasn’t one particular bogey jump, maybe other than the triple bar which was causing some riders to fault. My horse is very scopey, so I wasn’t worried about the size of any of the jumps.”
Quigley and King have a big future in the International ring and future FEI competitions. “Quigley is a funny guy! He’s a bit quirky, he was fighting me a bit in the warm up, but thankfully didn’t show any of that in the ring. Quigley is green for a ten year old, but I think he’s the horse of my career. He’s one of the scopiest animals I’ve ever sat on, I think he’s truly a meter sixty horse.”
King used the Classic last night not only to win some prize money, but also to prepare Quigley for the $100,000 Spirit of the West Cup this coming Saturday. “I feel really confident heading in the $100,000, Spirit of the West Cup. I love the venue here at the Royal West; its beautiful! John Anderson is a really good buddy of mine, building this show was his dream. I honestly didn’t know how it would fly, but I’m really really happy with the venue, the money, and the competition overall has been quite strong.”
Dagmar Fortmuller generously sponsored last evening’s event, and echoed King’s praise of the new venue, and Royal West President John Anderson. “It’s a great facility! I very much enjoyed it, this was a great showing of the sport here tonight. I would’ve loved to see John win, he was close with the third place finish on Terrific, I think they tried very hard tonight.”
Tamie Philips and Cat Balou finished second in the class, followed by Royal West’s own John Anderson aboard Terrific. Southern Pride and Karen Cudmore finished fourth, with Jill Henselwood and Bolero HX rounding out the top five.
The success of the inaugural Royal West has been undoubtabley due to the work of the RMSJ management team, and to everyone who has supported the event. RMSJ President, John Anderson couldn’t be more pleased. ”It’s a real leap of faith to have all these fantastic riders join us here at the inaugural Royal West. Everyone has come up to us and said we’ve knocked it out of the park. We’ve got a great course designer, fantastic sponsors like Dagmar, fantastic prize money and we’re determined to make this a great tradition.”
The Royal West is first and foremost a horse show and was conceived by John, with the intention of giving riders a taste of the indoor horse show experience. “We have the ability now to allow so many more competitors the opportunity to experience showing in a major indoor Tournament. If riders want to be jumping in major indoor competitions, they’ve got to be given the opportunity to practice and that’s what the Royal west is about!”
Congratulations to Kyle King and Quigley on their win last night in the ACTC $33,500 CSI3* Classic. We wish everyone the best of luck in this week’s events, and most especially the upcoming $100,000 Spirit of the West Cup, Saturday November 1st.
Check out our filmed interviews with the links below!
Grand Prix Rider, Kyle King Interview.
RMSJ President, John Anderson Interview.
ACTC CSI3* Classic Sponsor Dagmar Fortmuller.
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