Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990 TAG: 9006170118
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With the 19th-annual show's finale - the Grand Prix of Roanoke - having a $60,000 purse and a sharp increase in the number of hunter barns signed in this year, the competition for more than $200,000 in prizes figures to be tougher.
The show begins Monday at the Salem Civic Center with hunter and Western horse competition and runs through Saturday night's saddlebred finals and the sixth-annual Grand Prix. Co-sponsored by the Roanoke Valley Horsemen's Association and the Junior League of Roanoke Valley, the show also has a new attraction this year - a four-night visit by the Budweiser Clydesdales.
Horsemen from up and down the East Coast - and farther - began arriving Saturday. Peter Pletcher's PJP Farm from Magnolia, Texas, is renting 13 stalls for jumpers. More than 900 horses are expected to compete in the arena and outdoor rings.
The highlight, as it has been since 1985, is the annual Grand Prix. Virginia resident Rodney Jenkins dominated the first four years, and former football player Barney Ward rode Sedac to last year's $18,000 prize. This year, Ward returns, but one of the biggest Grand Prix purses nationally is attracting increased competition.
Jenkins, winner of more than 80 Grand Prix events, isn't scheduled to return. He is training jumpers on his Central Virginia farm after spending part of the winter in a new venture, as a racing thoroughbred owner and trainer in Florida.
"I think we have more stars coming here for the Grand Prix than we've had before," said June Camper, the horsemen's association co-chairman for the show. "I guess it's word of mouth. We have a lot of people coming here who could go to Detroit and have two chances, at $50,000 Grand Prix events this weekend and next weekend."
Mario Deslauriers, a Quebec native and former Canadian Olympic rider, returns after his first Roanoke Valley visit last year.
A first-time competitor here is Middleburg's Katie Monahan Prudent, regarded by many in the equestrian world as the female Jenkins. Prudent's Plain Bay Farm has seven horses entered, including three in the Grand Prix.
Bob Bell, director of Horse Show Services, a computer firm that charts horse shows around the country, said Prudent continues to stun the sport. She was involved in a Grand Prix accident in March in Florida and underwent brain surgery after falling from a mount. Although doctors said she shouldn't ride soon, she was back on horses competing last month.
Among her scheduled mounts here is Special Envoy, owned by Pamela Harriman, the widow of long-time U.S. statesman and former New York governor W. Averell Harriman. The horse is named for the former diplomat, who was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy to Britain in 1940 for the Lend-Lease program.
The jumper classes, sponsored by major show supporter Marion Via, warm up for the Grand Prix with $10,000 classes to open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night sessions. Friday's open jumper class is the crowd-favorite Gambler's Choice, in which riders choose which jumps they want to try.
The Clydesdales will appear Wednesday through Saturday nights. A dressage exhibition is set Wednesday night and a polo exhibition Thursday night. The popular Jack Russell Terrier races are set Friday night, after the Gambler's Choice. On Tuesday night, a stick-horse class is open to all children age 6 and under. Everyone gets a ribbon in that competition.
Daytime sessions begin at 9 a.m., with Monday through Friday evening events starting at 7. The Saturday night show starts at 6:30.
Tickets are on sale at the Salem Civic Center box office and range in price from $2 to $8, depending on the day and session.
by CNB