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PHOTO CAPTION: Ashley Holzer and Pop Art at Palm Beach Dressage Derby
PHOTO CREDIT: Sue Stickle
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Ashley Holzer and Pop Art Win Prix St. Georges at Palm Beach Dressage Derby
LOXAHATCHEE, FL – March 3, 2006 – Canada’s two-time Olympian Ashley Holzer riding Pop Art topped a field of 37 horses today to win the FEI Prix St. Georges at the 2006 Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI***/CDIY in Loxahatchee, Florida. Holzer, who resides in New York, New York, earned a score of 72.650% aboard the nine-year-old Dutch gelding by Amsterdam. Ian Nicoll, Holzer’s father, owns Pop Art.
Claiming second place was Lars Petersen of Denmark riding Dacardo for owner Melissa Taylor Yee. Petersen, who resides in Wellington, Florida, earned 69.300% aboard the seven-year-old Swedish warmblood by D-Day. The third place ribbon went to Nicole Bellah of Lake Worth, Florida, riding her own Avant-Garde. Bellah and her 17-year-old Dutch gelding by Beethoven scored 68.10%.
The 2006 Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI***/CDIY (March 3-5) at the Horse Park at Equestrian Estates features USEF High Performance Qualifying Competition for the 2006 World Equestrian Games Selection Trials, the USEF National Grand Prix Championship, the USEF National Intermediaire I Championship, the USEF National Grand Prix Freestyle Championship/US League Final, and BLM Qualifying Competition.
In today’s FEI Prix St. Georges, a qualifier for the USEF National Intermediaire I Championship, all five judges at the international Arena 1 placed Holzer first. “I feel very lucky about that,” Holzer said of the unanimous decision. “I’ve had an incredible season with this horse. He really just goes in there and performs.”
Holzer also credited her support team for today’s victory. “They knew this CDI was very important to me,” she said. Holzer plans to compete Pop Art in the small tour (Prix St. Georges/Intermediaire I) at one more CDI this season and then will advance him to Grand Prix. “I really wanted to do very, very well. My coach and everyone have been drilling me to make sure that I’m clean. My dad’s out there video-ing, everyone’s out there video-ing to make sure that we’re cleaning everything up the best we can in his last two shows at this level,” Holzer said. “This win is an accumulation of a lot of effort from a lot of people.”
Holzer is coached in Florida by her 1988 Seoul Olympic Games Team Bronze Medal teammate, Eva Pracht. “It’s great to have a former teammate as my coach at this point in my life – to have someone there helping me out that little bit,” Holzer said. Holzer also receives coaching from Norbert Van Laak, the Canadian Dressage Team coach who has been flying in from Germany to work with the Canadian riders in Florida this season.
“The best thing today was that “Poppy” stayed on my aids and gave me a great feeling the whole way through the test,” Holzer enthused. “He went through clean, but more than that he gave me an incredibly active feeling. He’s a very true horse.” Holzer has been riding Pop Art for two-and-a-half years and trained him from Second/Third Level to the FEI level. Pop Art received his name from Holzer’s mother-in-law, Jane Holzer – one of artist Andy Warhol’s famous stars during his reign as the innovator of ‘pop art’. The chestnut is known as “Poppy” according to Holzer because he “kind of pops when he goes – he lifts his legs high.” She noted that today he felt “like a very polished and experienced horse overall” and that the Prix St. Georges test was “easy for him.”
Holzer, who was a member of Canada’s 1988 Seoul Olympics Bronze Medal Team and also competed at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, stated that she is aiming the talented Pop Art for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Officiating at the international arena today were: Anne Gribbons “I” USA at E; Lorraine MacDonald, “I”, Canada at H; Axel Steiner, “O”, USA at C; Beatrice Buerchler-Keller, “O” Switzerland at M; and Evi Eisenhardt, “O”, Germany at B.
For complete results of today’s competition, visit www.pbderbycom
PHOTO CAPTION: Ashley Holzer and Pop Art at Palm Beach Dressage Derby
