Sixty-eight leadliners ages 2 through 7, prepped in the schooling ring by their trainers as to possible equestrian questions they might be asked by their judge, the three-time Olympic medalist and Show Jumping Hall of Famer Joe Fargis, got the weeklong Hampton Classic Horse Show going Sunday morning in the Grand Prix ring as triumphant music played and parents and relatives waved and cheered them on.
“I’ll tell you something great about this leadline class,” Fargis was reported as saying afterward. “I’ve lived long enough that I’ve seen some of these young riders 15 years later jumping in the Grand Prix here. I love that. I love how, as time goes on, their riding has matured. It’s just wonderful.”
Ines Marteau, 4, of Sag Harbor, a daughter of Brianne Goutal-Marteau, who has been a three-time runner-up in the Classic’s most remunerative class, the Grand Prix, topped the 2-4 leadliners aboard GHF Hamptons L.L.C.’s Love Me Too. Harbor Mentzel of East Patchogue, riding Mackenzie Rose Rocco’s Oopsie Daisy, and two more Sag Harborites, Sienna Pepa, on Arete Equestrian’s Night Light, and Lucia Dibartolo, on the Topping Riding Club’s Be Right Back, led a field of 42 entrants in 5-7 leadline.
East End Stables’ 2-to-4 leadliners, their trainer, Jen Santacroce-Wheeler, said in an email Saturday, were Haileigh Romeo, Kennedy Bistrian, Daphne Hickey, Marilyn Duda, and Nova Morsch. Its 5-7 leadliners were Chase Milescyzch, Abigail Duda, and Isabelle Hickey. Jason de Leyer, Elizabeth Yudovich, Ava Lynch, Sarah Brandow, and Katherine Wallace were to carry East End’s banner in the Classic’s hunter and jumper divisions this week, Santacroce-Wheeler added.
Eva Lefcourt, Lucas Stephen, Arabella Lyon, and Mia Johns were to have represented Stony Hill Stables at the Classic. The following riders from Swan Creek Farms in Bridgehampton have been entered: Jagger Topping, Phoebe Topping, Pam Goodwin, Izzy Culver, Kylie Tekulsky, Emerson Cassidy, and Isabel Emanuel.
Heartland and Goutal-Marteau won Sunday’s $10,000 Marders Local Hunter Derby, with Edgewood’s Wonder and Laura Bowery sixth. In Bocca Al Lupo and Bowery were eighth in that class as well. Afterward, Goutal-Marteau was quoted as saying, “Heartland is only 8 years old, but he really stepped up to the plate and became a real contender. He’s a beautiful mover, a beautiful jumper, and just a beautiful horse to look at. He’s a very classic Warmblood, and he went great today.”
Opening Day’s big class, the $30,000 Hampton Classic 1.40-meter (4-foot-6-inch) Jumper Challenge, which attracted 43 entries, was won by Christian Coyle of Ireland on Ma Pomme De Tamerville, an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare, in a 12-rider jump-off. As a result, Coyle, with 100 points, began the week as the leader in the $30,000 Longines Rider Challenge, a prize that, along with a Longines watch, goes on Sunday to the rider who has accumulated the most points in open jumper classes.
Kelli Cruciotti Vanderveen and Forever SFN, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, were the runners-up by less than a half-second, and Rodrigo Pessoa and Lord Lucio, a 12-year-old Hosteiner gelding, were third.
“I thought Kelli’s time would be really tough to beat,” Coyle told the show’s press officer, Marty Bauman, afterward. “But my horse is naturally fast. . . . I thought if we could just get over all the jumps that we would have a good chance. . . .”
Bauman and the show’s executive director, Shanette Barth Cohen, are saying that this year’s Classic is the biggest and best ever. Asked the reasons why, Bauman said, “The fact that last year we were named a five-star show by the F.E.I., for one, and, two, I think some of the riders were waiting to hear from their fellow riders how the footing was in the Grand Prix ring. We were besieged with applications this year — we even had to turn some five-star riders away.”
Capote, Rocklyn, and Quantonius did well in local hunter pro classes Sunday with Bowery, who for the second year in a row won the grand local hunter championship trophy. She won two classes with Rocklyn and two with Capote. Bowery also won a class with Quantonius. Rocklyn and Anne Byers won the local amateur-owner hunter under-saddle class, with Coeur De Leon and Cynthia Sulzberger second. Coeur De Leon and Sulzberger won the local amateur-owner hunter over-fences class with Rocklyn and Byers third. Quantonius and Byers topped another local amateur-owner hunter over-fences class.
Cezna and Tekulsky were fourth in an adult medal class, Garden Street and Phoebe Topping were fifth in a local hunter pro under saddle class, and Gibson Lane and Jagger Topping were sixth in two local hunter pro over-fences classes.
The $39,000 Flecha Azul Five-Star Speed Stake, the $25,000 Hunter Classic, and the $10,000 Citarella Two-Star Open Jumper class will be today’s featured events at the 60-acre Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton, showgrounds. The $78,000 Douglas Elliman Five-Star Grand Prix Qualifier, the $39,000 Wolffer Estate Two-Star Open Jumper class, and the $10,000 Lugano Diamonds Junior/Amateur Welcome Stake are slated for tomorrow.
Children under 12 are to be admitted free and are to get a free pony ride on Saturday, Kids Day. Featured events that day will include the Agency $78,000 Five-Star Speed Stake, the $39,000 F.E.I. Two-Star Open Jumper Classic, and the $10,000 Hermes Equitation Championship.
The $425,000 Longines Hampton Classic Five-Star Grand Prix will be held Sunday at 2 p.m., preceded by the $78,000 Hampton Classic Two-Star Grand Prix and the $25,000 Agneta and Brownlee Currey High Junior/Amateur Jumper Classic.