Lexington, KY – August 3, 2024 – It was derby day at the Kentucky Summer Classic as professional and junior/amateur riders gathered to compete in the $7,500 Open National Hunter Derby and $7,500 Junior/Amateur National Hunter Derby in the Stonelea Ring. Nick Haness showed the way in the $7,500 USHJA Open National Hunter Derby with Modern Man, while Madison Wu and Barman Des Ponts scored the top honors in the $7,500 USHJA Junior/Amateur National Hunter Derby.
Nick Haness and Modern Man
The courses for Saturday’s highlight events were designed by Kevin Holowack. The welcoming first round allowed riders to showcase their horses’ brilliance over the fences, while the handy course offered more dynamic options with a trot fence as the second fence before rolling back to one of the four high options. The course ended with an in-and-out before riders hand galloped the final oxer towards the gate and walked out of the ring.
Jennifer Jones and Azlan
The $7,500 USHJA Open National Hunter Derby got underway first where Haness and Modern Man climbed the standings with a brilliant handy round to take home the winning honors. The duo earned a first round score of 91 to rank second behind Jennifer Jones and Azlan. They returned second to last and knew they had to lay it all on the line. With all four high options and very tight turns the duo impressed the judges enough to earn a 96 for a two round total of 187. Jones and Azlan scored a 93 in the first round and also utilized all four high options for a beautiful handy round as well, but a second score of 93 had them finish just one point behind Haness with a 186 and second place. Michael Desiderio had the second highest handy round score with a 94 aboard Cocolores. Combined with their first round score of 87.5 they earned a 181.5 total for third place.
Michael Desiderio and Cocolores
Modern Man is an 8-year-old Warmblood gelding by Casallco owned by Lynn Olson that Haness is getting to know this week ahead of the 2024 Platinum Performance/USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championship. Haness explained, “This week was sort of a week for me to get to know him and practice a little bit in a show environment, seeing what kind of nerves he has, what nerves I have with him and getting all of those pieces of the puzzle ironed out this week so we can come to the incentive finals with a bang.”
Haness knew he would need to have a daring handy round with Moden Man to win and he was thrilled with his mount’s performance. “Jenny Jones is a great rider and the horse that she was leading the class on is a really nice horse as well,” he said. “I knew I was in a position to try and be daring. Modern Man is very brave and very capable and very scopey. I felt like he was ready and I thought that today would be a good chance to test and see where he was mentally, and he was superb in the handy. He made all the really hard, tight turns with ease. He was really lofty over with the jumps and jumped in nice style. I’ve never done a trot jump with him, which is never my forte, so I was pleased to know he’s got my back on the trot jumps and we had a really nice time in the handy resulting in a 96!”
Watch their winning handy round
The next event in the Stonelea Ring was the $7,500 USHJA Junior/Amateur National Hunter Derby where riders competed over the same courses and just one point separated the top three. Madison Wu piloted Barman Des Ponts to scores of 88 and 93, for a total score of 181. Kenzie Smith was close behind her for second place with Sundown, receiving scores of 89 and 91. The third place award went to Violet Tatum and Jagerbomb after they earned scores of 92 and 87.
Madison Wu and Barman Des Ponts
Barman Des Ponts is a 13-year-old Selle Francais gelding by Chef Rouge that Wu began riding a year ago, and while they normally compete in the Junior Hunters, this marks their third derby win together. “He’s such a good boy, “ she expressed. “I can never say just enough good things about this horse. He’s such a dependable, solid ride. I know that every single time he goes in the ring, he’s always going to be good. We actually won our handy in the junior hunters yesterday, so I was really confident in our handy skills. He was perfect and followed my eye everywhere. He turned so well for me and he jumped so nicely.”
Wu will be staying at the Kentucky Horse Park through the Bluegrass Classic and concluded, “I really like it here – it’s really nice for the horses. They have so much turnout and so much space, so they really like it here, and as long as they’re happy, I’m happy!”
Watch their winning handy round
As the Kentucky Summer Classic is coming to a close, but several horse and rider combinations will be continuing their trip to Kentucky, Many have gathered to prepare for the 2024 Platinum Performance/USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championship, the Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship, and the 2024 USEF Pony Finals, which will all take place in August at the Kentucky Horse Park.
For more information on Kentucky Horse Shows LLC and the Kentucky Summer Series please visit www.kentuckyhorseshows.com.