Premier jumper competition kicked off in the Grand Prix ring at HITS Post Time Farm on Thursday morning where a total of 28 combinations contested for the top call in the $25,000 Alliant Private Client Cup. The class is a weekly staple that preludes a full weekend of action including a weekly speed series, Saturday’s grand prix, and Sunday afternoon’s $24,500 Horseflight Jumper Classic. As the show is winding down into its final few weeks, the competition proves to be better than ever but the fast footwork of Gin Tonic 158 once again proved to be unbeatable as Sam Pegg took his second win in the event throughout the series.

Oscar Soberon (USA) put forward a challenging course worthy of the competitive field that emerged for Week VIII competition and produced a perfect 25 percentage rate of riders advancing to the jump off. Pegg bookended the short course competitors as the only athlete to advance two mounts from the first round. With his first to return, Formidable Diamant, Pegg finished on an eight-fault effort and knowledge of what to change in his plan to procure the win.

A horse and rider jumping a fence in Ocala.

Francois Lamontagne (CAN) and Thunderbird VH Scheefkasteel Z placed 3rd in the class. (ESI Photography)

“The first horse is a little bit less experienced,” he explained, “and I thought I maybe got there too soon in the the eight-stride line, so I was a little more patient to the first jump the second time and I did one less stride coming to the combination. Then I just let him have a good gallop to the last fence.”

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