Canadian Selena O'Hanlon Claims Victory at Fair Hill

The show jumping phase proved influential for CCI*** competitors Sunday at The 2017 Dutta Corp. Fair Hill International Three-Day Event with the leaderboard shuffling to reveal Canada’s Selena O’Hanlon and Foxwood High as the winning pair and William Coleman and Tight Lines as The Dutta Corp./USEF CCI*** Eventing National Champions. Meanwhile, Tamra Smith and Sunsprite Syrius remained unaffected by the challenging show jumping phase to close out a start to finish win of the CCI** division.

It was a rollercoaster weekend for Selena O’Hanlon as she bounced from first to second and back on top again with Foxwood High, a 14-year-old Canadian Sport Horse owned by John and Judy Rumble. Ultimately, the CCI*** win and a $15,000 prize was hers for the taking after adding three deliberate time penalties in Sunday’s show jumping to finish on a score of 44.0.

“I’m super excited for this horse at this level. It was a personal best all the way through I couldn’t have asked for any more of him,” she said. “Today I got a little worried. He started show jumping by braille which leads to rails usually, so I took the time to have a clear round because that was my goal and I’m glad it all worked out in the end anyway.”

Scroll to continue with content

O’Hanlon also received The Linda Moore Trophy as the highest placed foreign entry as well as The Beale Wright Morris Memorial Trophy as the leading lady in the CCI***.

William Coleman and Tight Lines were crowned Dutta Corp./USEF CCI*** National Eventing Champions after a faultless show jump round left them on their dressage score (46.3) as the highest placed American pair.

“He was magic yesterday on the cross country. I was thrilled with how he ran. He made it feel like it was well within his capabilities, and today he just tried his heart out.” Coleman said of The Conair Syndicate’s 10-year-old Thoroughbred. “I think the horse’s biggest attribute is that he just gives 100 percent all the time. He’s not the simplest, but he really tried. As long as you can harness that the right way, you can do some good things. We’ll just try to reproduce it now over and over again.”

A clear round catapulted Boyd Martin and Christine Turner’s Tsetserleg to third place in the CCI*** for the Dutta Corp./USEF CCI*** Reserve Champion title. A score of 46.1 in the dressage and 1.2 time penalties on cross country gave them a final result of 47.3.

“He’s a newer horse for me. He just doesn’t wow you at home, but when you get to a competition this horse all of the sudden grows to about 17.2, and he jumps as high as you wanna jump and and moves like Totilas, and we saw that this weekend at Fair Hill,” Martin commented on his talented partner.

Aurelio Qunzanos and Jorge Eduardo Mtz. Castrejon’s Cecelia won The Welcome Here Farm Trophy as the highest placed American Thoroughbred mare. Tamra Smith earned The Alexander MacKay Smith Trophy as the highest placed CCI*** competitor who has not yet competed in a CCI****. Jordan and Barbara Linstedt’s tenth-placed Revitavet Capato won the Best Presentation Award, and Frank McEntee’s Paddy The Caddy was the highest placed American Thoroughbred.

Tamra Smith’s cross country trip from California proved successful Sunday as she completed a wire-to-wire win of The Dutta Corp./USEF CCI** Eventing National Championship with Sunsprite Warmbloods’ Sunsprite Syrius. The 9-year-old Trakehner ends the weekend on his dressage score of 40.9.

“I’m thrilled. He was perfect in every phase, and I couldn’t have asked him to be better. He show jumped today like a million bucks,” Smith said proudly.

For Smith, a win like this means all the more for the horse’s owners, Pamela Duffy and Donald Trotter of Sunsprite Warmbloods. “The owners have a fairly small, medium breeding farm in southern California, and Pam [Duffy] is very diligent about breeding the horses and what horses she acquires for the sport. I’m just really happy for them,” she explained. “It’s been kind of a long road to get here, so I’m thrilled for them.”

William Coleman and Off The Record moved nimbly around Sally Ike’s winding show jumping track to finish in second place. The Off The Record Syndicate’s 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse avoided jump penalties throughout the weekend for a final result of 49.8.

“Anytime you finish a three-day event on your dressage score I think it’s a major accomplishment,” Coleman said proudly. “This horse has done it twice this year, which I’m really proud of. I there’s some things we’ll try to improve on over the winter. He’s been consistent this year, and that’s something we can hang our hat on.”

Matthew Flynn and Get Lucky, a 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood owned by Flynn SportHorses, steadily climbed the leaderboard through all three phases, ending the competition in third. Only 0.4 cross country time penalties marred their finishing result of 50.4. Get Lucky was also awarded the Best Presentation Award.

“I was really happy with him in all three phases. I was disappointed to be one second over [the time on cross country], but such is life. For him, I’m thrilled. It’s his second two-star, and he’s been third here before, so it was nice to repeat it,” he said.

The John H. Fritz Trophy was awarded to Sophia Click as the highest placed Young Rider in the CCI** division. Nina and Tim Gardner’s FE Lifestyle earned the USEF National Young Horse Championship title for 6- and 7-year-old horses. The Small But Mighty Award was given to Colleen Rutledge’s Uno for being the smallest equine to compete the CCI**. Jennie Brannigan earned the Judy E. Thayer Memorial Award as the highest placed rider who currently resides in Chester County, PA. Lindsay Beer was the leading foreign rider and earned The Palmaccio Trophy. Nita Snfilippo’s Alarmabull was given The Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue Trophy as the highest placed American Thoroughbred.

Complete results here.