TORONTO, Canada--Aaron Vale on Gray's Inn won the CSI5*-W The Royal Winning Round Friday night, Nov. 13 at the Royal Horse Show.
Aaron Vale on Gray's Inn (Photo by Sarah Miller for MacMillan Photo)In the Winning Round, the top 10 riders qualified for the second, or jump-off, round, with those riders returning with zero faults, in reverse order of qualification, despite what they had scored in round one.
Vale had four faults in round one, but with only eight clean in round one, the two fastest four faulters qualified.
Vale was the final rider to make the cut for the second round, and making the most of the opportunity, he ended up the class winner, narrowly beating McLain Ward on First Lady.
Going first over the second round course set by Bernardo Costa Cabral of Portugal, Vale and the 12-year-old gelding Gray’s Inn had a clean round that could not be matched by the rest of the field, crossing the timers in 32.13 seconds.
McLAIN WARD on First Lady came closest to catching the winning pair but ultimately ended up just five-hundredths of a second behind, finishing clean in 32.18 seconds.
Marlon Modolo Zanotelli of Brazil on Eddie G Z placed third in 34.07 seconds.
“I went in with the thought of throwing a fastball inside, make the batter back up, and the pitch hit just inside the corner of the plate,” Vale said.
"THIS IS my wife's horse," said Vale. "She called from home after the first round."
McLain Ward on First Lady (Photo by Sarah Miller for MacMillan Photo)His wife Mallory couldn't make the trip to Toronto while managing things at their home in Williston, Florida.
“She’s at home, because our daughter is in school, and and we have a lot of things going on at home with the horses and our business. She makes all of this happen,” Vale said. “She produced him since he was 5, and she rides him at home. On the phone, she just said, ‘You better go fast. Throw a fast ball inside.'”
Vale started fast and ran flat out to the final oxer, and had a very tight turn to the fourth fence, a delicate vertical.
“I jumped fence one, and I got that like I wanted. I turned, and I just went to the first distance I saw,” Vale said. “I took the six strides to the following line, and I turned to that next vertical. I felt like I was nearly parallel with it, but I thought], I think he’s going to jump it anyway!”
“When the top 10 come back on 0 faults, if you’re clear in the first round, you hate to get beaten by someone that had a rail down. That’s happened to me before, now with the roles reversed,” Vale said. “When you can win with a rail down in the first round, you’re certainly happy. I’m happy to get it tonight.”
"Gray’s Inn has done a lot of good for us,” Vale said. “He’s a great horse in the barn, and my wife’s had fun with him. She’s letting me have fun with him, and my daughter might get to have some fun with him in another couple of years.”
Vale has now captured five star wins at the Royal in two of the three years he’s attended the event.
“There’s a great crowd with great ambiance. The stands are full. At almost 11:00 pm, and the people are still here,” Vale said. “Toronto is lovely. We love it.”
