Source:  News Release

Canada's Richest Hunter Derby a Huge Hit!

Calgary, Alberta – Featuring the largest Hunter Derby prize money in the second largest country on the planet, Derby Day at the Rocky Mountain Classic III tournament lived up to the all the expectations. The most circled day on the calendar had the centerpiece event, the coveted $30,000 Canadian Hunter Derby Series Finals sponsored by Kristine Semrau of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.

It was an amazing event at Anderson Ranch, during the third week of competition hosted by Rocky Mountain Show Jumping, on a picture perfect day. Beautiful brand new derby jumps were unveiled just for this event, the Grand Prix ring looked stunning and there was a great crowd gathered to watch the competition..

A field of 33 took on the challenges set by course designer Christopher Edwards-Jones. With an impressive 18 jumping efforts, including 7 higher option fences for additional bonus scores, the table top and daunting log fence also tested the skills of the riders. Competing either at the 3’ 0” or at 3’ 6” level (depending on which height they qualified at) and the best round taking home the title. Judging this year’s finals were Rita Timpanaro from Smithtown, NY and Anne Reid from Calgary, AB.

In the field of competitors were two very familiar faces who battled it out against each other for the win. The top two positions would be determined by the young talented phenomenon Claire Doty and her trusted partner Armani and the derby master Rodney Tulloch and the fabulous Temptation. Claire has been on a roll this year winning 4 out of the past 5 qualifiers, passing on showing here last week to prepare for this event. Rodney, not the regular rider of Temptation, only getting the ride last week, but that was for the win in the last derby qualifier on the road to these finals.

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Only 2 points separated first and second at the end of the day with Rodney Tulloch and the beautiful Temptation putting in a stunning round that would see them in the winners circle.

“It was so much fun, there were so many great opportunities for inside turns and gallops. Chris Jones did an amazing job at setting the course and it is pretty exciting.” beamed Rodney. “The mare is Temptation and she is owned by Kerri Russell. Paige Russell has primarily shown the mare and very lucky for me Paige went back to school at Texas A&M so I got to get the ride on her and she is just such a good honest kind mare so it is pretty fun.” Rodney said talking about his partner.

“I am very excited about all of the hunter derbies, again we get such a great opportunity to gallop and do inside turns and just make it so fun. It is putting a whole new set of horsemanship back into riding that has been lost for a long time.” remarked Rodney.

The course design of the richest Hunter Derby in Canada fell into the hands of the young and talented Christopher Edwards-Jones and as usual he did an outstanding job. “I feel that the course worked out very well. I am very ecstatic and pleased how the class went and the scores were amazing and everybody rode really well.”

“The Hunter Derbies are really taking off in this country and I remember growing up as a kid riding in the hunter classes at Spruce Meadows in the old Rocky Mountain Ring and I remember kids learned how to ride.” said John Anderson, President of Rocky Mountain Show Jumping. “You galloped in a big open field and you learned to find the distances and find the jumps and not just count strides. And so for me it is about the development of the riders, the purse certainly helps to attract the riders, but I am really happy to see the riders stepping up and learning how to ride hunter courses.”

Kristine Semrau not only was the wonderful sponsor of this great event, she also was one of the challengers in the derby finals. “I am on such a high, it challenged me. I could not have been more challenged. We have never jumped the log and finally it was an option for the 3’0” and going into the ring I was not going to jump it and just got going and my horse felt so good I just thought that I wanted to go for it. I took all the options and the inside turns, my confidence has grown so much from this derby and I can’t wait for the next one.”

There are rumours that the prize money for this Hunter Derby Finals will be increasing next year to $50,000, which would be amazing and bring in more challengers and bring the spotlight onto the hunters.

Kristine Semrau speaking about her real estate career. “It is a passion of mine, while my background is law I have always been passionate about real estate and when the time was right and when my youngest one went into school full time I was able to embark upon my career. And in my mind there was no other company comparable to Sothbey’s, they have been selling people’s most prized possessions for years and now they are representing real estate and there is no other company that I wanted to be affiliated with. I love it.”

“Kristine Semrau has been really good with Sotheby’s Canada and she has stepped up to the plate the last couple of years to help us out immensely. I know that she was quite nervous today competing herself. I think that it was her first hunter derby finals of this level and she did great, apart from the rail I think that she would have got a piece of the action too.”, remarked John Anderson. “She was a little bit upset about having the rail, but she was ecstatic. I said you are not just helping the sport, but you are helping develop riders including yourself. And we can’t say enough thanks to Kristine for the job that she has done in helping here at Rocky Mountain Show Jumping.”

Rocky Mountain Show Jumping hosts its tournaments at Anderson Ranch in Calgary’s south end, a world-class facility featuring permanent stabling for 300 horses and a grass grand prix field complete with natural obstacles.  For more information on Rocky Mountain Show Jumping, please visit  www.rmshowjumping.com.

Competition continues September at the Fall Classic and Medal Finals, September 12-15, 2013.

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