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Tampa Equestrian Festival Week Three Wrap-up; Kappler Wins Budweiser American Invitational

Release: April 09 2009

Author: severs

Photo by Ken Kraus/PhelpsSports.com
Chris Kappler aboard VDL Oranta

By Rebecca Walton and Lauren Fisher

It was a difficult course testing the horses' power and endurance that set the stage for Saturday night's $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational, where no horse-and-rider combinations were able to complete a faultless first round. A seven-horse jump-off took place between the four-faulters in which Chris Kappler and VDL Oranta captured the Gold medal and led the night's victory gallop.

This was Kappler's third time winning this prestigious class, which has only been done by two other riders, Rodney Jenkins and Katie Prudent. In 1995 Kappler rode Seven Wonder and produced the only clear round to earn the win, and in 2003 he rode his Olympic mount Royal Kaliber during the victory gallop.

"Steve Stephens is an excellent builder; he always builds an Olympic-caliber track and it just proved to be a difficult course," explained Kappler. "The oxer-oxer was scopey; he had a tricky combination for the last line coming home, and it was a long course."

Kappler and VDL Oranta, owned by M & K Oranta, LLC, gathered four faults during their first round when they lowered the height of the oxer coming out of the liverpool double combination.

Kappler and VDL Oranta were ready to win as they took to the jump-off course. Kappler knew he would have to be clear to beat Todd Minikus, and McLain Ward and Sapphire were behind him in the order to put on the pressure. The pair was successful though and left all the fences standing, creating the second clear jump-off round of the night. Kappler made sharp, precise turns and VDL Oranta's large stride carried the pair through the finish line in 43.95 seconds, taking over the lead and garnering the Gold medal.

Kappler summed up the night by noting the importance of the American Invitational. "This is one of my favorite competitions," he said. "I'd like to thank Gene Mische for continuing to run this fabulous event. It's really one of the best events in America. If you look at the list of horses and riders that have won this class it's a pretty special group."

Kappler was already a part of that list, but now he will join an even more elite group of riders who have been able to earn the title three times and have gone on to be icons of the show jumping sport.

Jumper Highlights
In the Covered Arena, Tuesday's top prize was awarded to Mario Deslauriers after his wire-to-wire victory aboard Tigger in the 1.40m class. Deslauriers and Tigger were the first to enter the ring for the 1.40m class, and the pair were able to successfully complete a fault-free first round. They then moved on to the short course where they were also fault-free in a very quick 33.745 seconds. That time would hold up through eight more jump-off rounds to be the fastest of the day and win the class.

"Tigger has been in good form the last two weeks here," noted Deslauriers. "The plan is always to try to go as fast as we can leaving the jumps up. He jumped great today; there were a few difficult turns out there and he did them very well. I was very pleased with him; first one in and first place, so that was great."

"I knew I put the pressure on, the pace was good and when I hit everything with Tigger he's usually pretty quick," smiled Deslauriers. "I knew he was going to be a little demanding; the other rider would have to go to catch my time, so I was happy with it."

Next to compete in the Covered Arena on Tuesday was the 1.45m class where Yvonne Bryan and Palm Sunday emerged victorious after being only one of two riders to advance to the jump-off. "I wanted to have a nice solid round," explained Bryan. " During the jump-off I just wanted go slow and give the horse confidence because he's pretty young; he hasn't done a lot of this size jumping. So that was the plan, just nice and steady and slow and even to give him confidence."

Eight riders were able to complete a clear first-round effort and advance to th

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