Lexington, Ky. – Aug. 4, 2018 – Saturday competition in the Stonelea Ring at the Kentucky Summer Classic featured the $5,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby, sponsored by the World Equestrian Center and Kentucky Horse Shows, where Molly Sewell rode to the top two spots aboard Acado and Niko, respectively, with her leading scores separated by only one-fourth of a point. Third place was awarded to Lindsay Maxwell and her own Belgravia with a two-round total of 172.
Molly Sewell and Acado
Sewell rode to a similar finish after claiming the first and second place awards just two years ago in the $5,000 Hallway Feeds USHJA National Hunter Derby at the 2016 Kentucky Summer Classic, also leading the field with Sidney Porter’s Acado after just one month of partnership, and capturing the second place award with El Raymond, owned by Leslie and Stuart Campbell.
This year’s derby class, set by Danny Moore, saw 38 entries test over 11 fences in the classic round, featuring four high options. The top 12 combinations returned for the second round in reverse order, allowing riders to showcase their horse’s handiness with a trot fence and multiple opportunities for tight rollbacks. Sewell returned to the handy round with the third and fourth highest scores of 87 and 85.5 on Acado and Niko, respectively, hoping to best her two leading competitors.
Molly Sewell and Niko
With two mounts in the handy round, Sewell elected to move Cynthia Chaconas’ 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, Niko, up in the order-of-go, returning fourth instead of their slotted spot of ninth. The pair posted an impressive handy round score of 89 to capture and maintain the lead with a total score of 174.5 until she later returned third to last with Acado. The 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding rode to a total score of 174.75 to just edge out Sewell’s other mount for the victory.
Acado is a familiar mount for Sewell with over two years of partnership and multiple derby competitions between the two when the gelding is not competing in the Adult Amateur Hunter division with owner Sidney. However, Niko is a newer ride for Sewell as the pair just partnered last week at the Kentucky Summer Horse Show.
Lindsay Maxwell and Belgravia
Saturday’s feature class is part of an 11-event USHJA National Hunter Derby series collaboration sponsored by the World Equestrian Center and Kentucky Horse Shows that includes $20,000 in rider bonuses to be awarded at the World Equestrian Invitational in October.
Competition will resume in the Stonelea Ring with the Amateur-Owner Hunter divisions beginning at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 5, for the final day of competition at the Kentucky Summer Classic.
View the original article on Phelps Sports.