WELLINGTON, Fla.--Isabella Russekoff on Balou’s Fly High won the $10,000, 1.45m CSI4*, which served as the qualifier for the “Saturday Night Lights” feature, the $150,000, 1.50m Series Final Classic CSI4*.
Isabella Russekoff on Balou's Fly High. (Photo by Sportfot)Exactly half, 39, of the starting field of 78 in the 1.50m class on March 16 went clean over Olaf Petersen, Jr.: course, but it was Russekoff who was the fastest in the jump-off, finishing in 31.66 seconds.
“In the ring, he likes to take me to all the jumps, so I was confident that given this course, we would be able to leave out strides where maybe others could not,” said Russekoff. “For example, the last line was a normal five-stride line, but I know with him and how much he loves to go for it at the end of the course, I could choose to do four.”
BALOU'S FLY HIGH, a stallion, can be challenging to handle.
“He has a huge personality. He gets really emotional, so we have to keep him really separated from everyone else,” said Russekoff. “When he’s having a good day, it’s a little easier, but when he’s having a bad day, we just kind of let him be and try to be really nice to him.”
“We base our schedule with every other horse at the barn around him, because he has such a big personality," she said. "Since he can get so worked up, we don’t try too hard to mess with him at home, because he’s usually always amazing in the ring.”
Balou’s Fly High has been a winning partner for Russekoff for seven years and has helped her move up from the 1.20m Low Junior Jumper division all the way through the CSI2* grand prix level.
During this year’s WEF 8, they finished third in the $25,000 Hermès Under 25 Series Semi-Final.
“Every win with him is really special. It’s especially nice to win with him, because he tries so hard for me every single time he goes in,” said Russekoff. “It’s awesome when I can also reward him by doing my part to go fast and put in a good round.”
Conor Swail of Ireland on Theo 160 placed second in 32.26 seconds, and just three one-hundredths of a second behind Swail was Richard Vogel of Germany on Dakota de L’Ardrais.
Young rider Zayna Rizvi on Excellent won the $6,000, CSI2* 1.40m two-phase class over 79 entries, finishing in 28.69 seconds.
Rizvi was almost a full second faster than second-place finisher Hailey Royce on Sonic Boom, who finished in 29.54 seconds, and Victoria Heurtematte of Panama was third on Flying Dutchman in 30.19 seconds.
In the $1,000, 1.40m CSI4*, Spencer Smith won on Copernicus in 36.38 seconds, just edging out Germany’s Richard Vogel on Caramba 92, who stopped the clock in 36.65 seconds for second place.
Third place went to fellow U.S. rider Brian Moggre on I’m Special V, who finished in 42.66 seconds.
