Todd Minikus prevails at the International Bromont: back to back victories in two days!

Bromont press for PhelpsSports.com
Monday, July 21, 2008

Bromont, July 20, 2008 – The 33rd edition of the International Bromont closed its first week of competition with the 1.60 meter qualifier for the World Cup with prize money of $60,000 thanks to the support of Bonjourquébec.com. The Canadian league of the World Cup organizes a circuit of six qualifying events in Canada, with two in Quebec. The first one took place in Blainville on Sunday July 13. Today in Bromont, everything was set-up for a spectacular show! There were a lot of unanswered questions: would Mario Deslauriers rouse the crowd by winning as he did last year? Would American Alison Firestone Robitaille get a second victory following Blainville? Would Ian Millar, who is flying to the Olympics, get on the podium?

The atmosphere is buzzing and we can tell this course will be arduous with 14 fences, seventeen jumping efforts, designed by Venezuelan Leopoldo Palacios, accredited by the Fédération équestre internationale. Lots of turns, a precise stride count between fences and a triple combination at the end will force the participants to ride with clockwork precision.

Thirty-one horse/rider combinations will take on the challenge. The cream of the crop of Canadian, American, Columbian and French riders accepted the invitation: Roberto Teran, Yann Candele, Jay Hayes, Ian Millar, Leslie Howard, Norman Dello Joio and Erynn Ballard just to name a few. Quebeckers Angela Covert-Lawrence and of course Mario Deslauriers got all the support from the crowd `

First participant out, Ontarian Kelly Robinson cumulates one jumping fault and one time fault. The next two riders,, Marien Van Der Hoeven and Timothy I. Hooker also get time and penalty faults. As the rule states, after three consecutive rounds with penalty faults, the judge must change the time allowed. Therefore, the riders have 90 seconds to complete the course. The 7th rider, Angela Covert-Lawrence almost gets a perfect round. Unfortunately, she gets two time faults. The same scenario would be repeated successively with Jenna Thompson, Jennifer Gray, Keean White, Jonathon and Amy Millar. The French Yann Candele, who is now a Canadian citizen had to bow out after a chaotic start to his round. We had to wait until the 21st participant to see a clear round in less than 90 seconds. What’s her name? Jennifer Serek, who with her horse Bottom Line, won the FEI CSI *** Open Jumper on Friday. Todd Minikus, double winner yesterday in the Kubota Cup, confirms a jump off with his horse Pavarotti. We will have an American versus Canadian duel! Would Mario Deslauriers join them? The crowd is silent with anticipation. All goes well until the next-to last fence in the triple combination. Collective disappointment when a bar hits the ground! Both riders selected for the Bejing Olympic Games, Ian Millar and Mac Cone, also suffer bad luck with 4 jumping faults. Alison Firestone Robitaille failed to repeat last week’s feat in Blainville.

Hence, we were treated to a duel between Jennifer Serek and Todd Minikus. The Albertan is the first on the course. She gets eight jumping faults in a time of 44.13 seconds opening the door to 1st place for Todd Minikus. He did not have to push his horse full speed, all he had to do was get a clear round and even afford a few time faults. That is just what he did winning this World Cup qualifier with 6 penalty faults in a time of 55.45 seconds.