Louisville - Sunday Night
Monday, August 22, 2011
It is hard to believe that it’s here again, but at 6:30 p.m. announcer Peter Fenton welcomed everyone to the 108th edition of the World’s Championship Horse Show and following the National Anthem, the traditional ASR Futurity Of Kentucky Weanling class was welcomed to the ring. A total of $16,240 in prize money would be paid out to the top six among the 18 entries showing.
Everything from major breeding programs to one-mare owners was represented in this group but none could beat the lady from Willowbank, Joan Lurie. For the past six years Lurie has won a weanling class at Louisville, the last four, this ASR Futurity. Making it seven consecutive wins, Lurie and Darrell Case were the first in the ring and the last to leave. Lismore’s Nuttin Better (Undulata’s Nutcracker x Valhalla’s Razzle Dazzle) was their unanimous winning entry for Terri Kearney and they collected $8,120 in the process. The 2010 number one sire of World’s Champions, Undulata’s Nutcracker was off to another good start.
A check for $4,060 was the title of Reserve World’s Champion was presented to Dare To Dream Big, an entry shown by Morgan trainers John Hufferd and Kurt Hufferd for Joe and Naomi Lengacher. Dare To Dream Big was sired by HS Daydream’s Dignity and out of Memory Waltz. Third place money of a little over $2,000 went to the David Mountjoy entry, Mountjoy’s Money Maker (So Beware Black Ice x Reedann’s Fun N Fancy).
The first performance title of 2011 was also a unanimous decision. This one came in the seven-entry Kentucky County Fair Fine Harness Championship and went to the steel gray star, CH Revolver. Bret C. Day was once again on the lines for Dr. Robert Pugh. Day and Revolver had just come off the Fine Harness Jackpot Championship at Blue Ridge and the Reserve Fine Harness Stake at Shelbyville. Mercer County’s Fine Harness Reserve Grand Champion, Dances On Air, was reserve tonight with Lindsay Lavery driving for Sharla Deuschle.
Three classes resulted in three unanimous decisions with the third being The Remington and Juliet McDonald in the Kentucky County Fair Harness Pony Championship. This was the fourth consecutive year The Remington had either been first or second in the County Fair Championship for McDonald and the Majestic Oaks team. Tom Lowry and Mastercraft’s Promoter LF represented Golden Creek Farms as the reserve champions. These were two grand entries, but the bad thing is, they were the only two.
Winner of Mercer Country’s Three-Gaited Championship and Lexington’s Three-Gaited Reserve Grand Championship, Bubble Bath was at the top of his game with Merrill Murray riding the Michelle McCune entry to the Kentucky County Fair Three-Gaited Championship. The athletic ability of this Adriatic son continues to impress judging panels. Chad Reiser and Windgate’s Lady Lorraine applied the pressure from the rest of the 11-horse field to garner reserve grand champion honors for Ray Blanton.
Not often do good things happen when you have broken equipment in a class, but tonight that didn’t seem to bother either the champion or reserve champion from the seven-entry Kentucky County Fair Road Pony Championship. Debbie Foley and Heartland Painted Creation came into the ring with a broken martingale, which took several minutes to put back together before the class could get underway. As the class was going to the line up the martingale for Regal’s Wild Card LF also broke.
Wild Card’s work had already been done and it was good enough to earn the title of Kentucky County Fair Champion with Tom Lowry turning in the winning drive for Golden Creek Farms. Just a few weeks earlier, Wild Card was Shelbyville’s amateur champion with Mary McClean on the lines. The other martingale casualty, Heartland Painted Creation, trotted out with the reserve streamers for Luanne Kilday.
The second half of the ASR Futurity of Kentucky, this time yearlings, was the next class occupy Freedom Hall and compete for more than $16,000 in prize money. Both ASR Futurity classes were relatively light even though they had double-digit entries. The yearlings featured 16 hopefuls tonight. Willowbank bred babies have dominated these Futurity sections for a while now and this class was represented by the other half of the Willowbank dynamic duo, Sir William Robert.
Jeff Ramey led Sir Surreal (Sir William Robert x Harlem’s Irish Lass), the 2010 ASR Futurity Of Kentucky Weanling World’s Champion, for Paula Schmidt and Kathy Capsuto Walker. Not a bad start for Sir Surreal as he has two classes and two world’s titles to his credit. Sir William Robert also sired the Reserve World’s Champion, MBA’s Cary’s Girl who is out of MBA’s grand dame, CH Cary’s Moonraker, making her a product of two sensational harness horses. Grand Shiflet and Jeff Leech presented the third place winner in the crowd-pleasing Old South’s Black Label (Select Stock x Old South’s Armed And Dangerous).
The name Magical Beginnings has been called out as champion over and over this year and that roll continued tonight in the Kentucky County Fair Roadster To Bike Championship. Owner Kristen Bagdasarian gave a big fist pump as she ran to the winner’s circle to greet Magical Beginnings and Shane Mullens. This horse can fly and keep his form doing it. Tom Fiedler got the call to catch drive Street Legal GRS to command reserve honors for Holli Hayes and Lisa McMackin and the Majestic Oaks crew.
County Fair night continued with the cob-tail championship being slightly larger (3 entries) than the long tail. With a perfect headset and strong, balanced motion, Regal’s Trademark LF is loving his new role as a cob-tail. The 2009 Amateur Road Pony World’s Champion Of Champions was on the money to take the Kentucky County Fair Hackney Pony Championship for Mary McClean and Golden Creek Farms. Suffering their first defeat of the season, Heartland Globe-Trotter and Maureen Campbell pushed the champions with an athletic performance of their own to take reserve honors for Sandra Surber.
Night one came to a close with the seven-entry Kentucky County Fair Five-Gaited Championship. One of the most improved horses of the year came through strong for trainer Rob Byers who won this championship for the second year in a row. Last year it was Rosemarie Fernandez’s Treasure The Warmth. This year it was Callaway’s Born To Ride for new owners Kim and Peter Cowart. Former owner Theresa Vonderschmitt was on hand to cheer for the big, impressive son of CH Callaway’s Born To Win. Riding hard and covering a lot of ground, Michael Buchanan guided Last Serenade to the reserve championship for Vicki Reed and the Pleasantview Farm training team.
Round one of the 108th World’s Championship Horse Show was completed without incident and set the stage for the 25 classes on tap for the Monday morning session.
|