Shane Sweetnam & Indra Van De Oude Heihoef. Ph: Hampton Classic
On Wednesday, August 20, 2017, Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam and Indra Van De Oude Heihoef won the $10,000 Palm Beach Masters Open Jumper class at the Hampton Classic in Bridgehampton, NY.
Forty-five entries competed over the 1.45 course designed by Ireland’s Alan Wade, with just 12 progressing to the shortened jump off track.
Early in the field, Mexico’s Santiago Lambre and D’Artagnan posted a blistering jump off time of 32.86 seconds, though ultimately, Sweetnam would claim the top prize after producing a near-impossible turn to shed seconds off his time.
“Santiago was very fast and I knew I wouldn’t catch him by going around,” said Sweetnam. “I had seen the turn when I walked the course and I was thinking my horse could do that because she is quite nifty. It’s not an easy type of turn to make, and you have to have a certain type of horse to try a turn like that. I knew we wouldn’t be as fast across the ground as Santiago, so I knew we would have to try something like that. She is good at that and I’m lucky it came up really nicely. She jumped it so I think it was worth the risk.”
The USA’s Catherine Tyree and Enjoy Louis rounded out the top three with a jump-off time of 33.661 seconds.
For the full results, visit this link.