Lane Clarke Rides to Emotional Win in $40,000 FarmVet 1.45m Open Classic
Lane Clarke was riding for more than a blue ribbon in Sunday’s $40,000 FarmVet 1.45m Open Classic at Desert International Horse Park. Just two months after the passing of his father – the man who shaped Clarke’s riding career and trained his winning mount, Venom – Clarke galloped away with the win in the Desert Circuit 7 class, held on February 22.
“I’m just really happy,” said an emotional Clarke following his victory. “My dad died on Christmas, and it’s my first big class without him. It’s his horse. He trained it, and I’m just thankful to have everyone here to support me…[My dad and I] always did this together, and I guess we’re still doing it together.”
In order to earn the win in honor of his dad, Clarke had to top a nine-horse jump-off in the Grand Prix Stadium. However, he and Venom made that look easy. Following a long gallop to the final oxer, the pair flew through the finish in 42.447 seconds to eventually take home the win by a nearly three-second margin. Second place with a time of 45.174 seconds went to Ian McFarlane and Kimberly HX, owned by Sahana Ganesan. Taking home third place on 45.206 seconds were James Chawke and Noah Nelson’s L.V. Charice.
“I always love [Marina Azevedo]’s courses,” said Clarke of the course designer for Sunday’s class. “My dad and I always loved jumping her courses. Obviously, there are other course designers we really like, but we’ve always talked about how she gets rails everywhere – and we just really like her as a person.”
Clarke continued, “As far as the jump-off went, my dad always pushed me to take the risk and go win, or don’t worry about it. It’s not that he wasn’t happy if we didn’t win, but he never made it a problem if I went for the win and made a mistake. Today, I was feeling a little bit cautious. I wanted to be careful and I was like, ‘You know what? He would’ve wanted me to make the inside turn!’ Even though it was a bit risky, Venom’s such a spectacular horse. He’s just so fast, and we’ve won a bunch of classes leaving a bit of caution to the wind. I figured, ‘Why change it?’ I was really happy. Venom stepped up.”
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