Victoria Colvin on Dicblue PS wins Wellington Hunter Spectacular

Victoria Colvin won the $150,000 WCHR Hunter Spectacular on DecoBlue PS for the rider's seventh victory in the hunter highlight event at Wellington International's Winter Equestrian Festival.

Victoria and the 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding were awarded a score of 95.83 as the average of the two-round competition--a first round Classic course for 94.66 that gave her the lead and last to go in the second-round Handy. One of three judges gave the pair a perfect 100 in the second round for a score of 97 and the victory.

Laena Romondo on Oslo, a 13-year-old Belgian-bred gelding, placed second on 91.25.

Scott Stewart on Cadet, an eight-year-old gelding, was third on 89.42.

Of the 30 starting combinations, 12 returned for the second round.

Tori described the first round as really fun, "very flowing, long bending lines." But the most fun for her was the Handy, especially at what was described as the Valentine's Day complex where there were options to jump hay bales or sticks either way.

"Blue," as the horse owned by John Ingram is nicknamed, is not phased by anything, Tori said--"he walked in and he was fantastic. I couldn't have asked him to do anything better."

The score of 100 was only her second ever at that mark, an accomplishment she said was Incredible."

Results:

Place Horse/Rider Score

1 DICOBLUE PS/VICTORIA COLVIN 95.83

2 OSLO/LAENA ROMOND 91.25

3 CADET/SCOTT STEWART 89.42

4 STYLED/NICK HANESS 89.25

5 BLUE MOMENT/NICK HANESS 89.17

6 LAFITTE DE MUZE/AMANDA STEEGE 88.5

7 MEANINGFUL/PARKER PEACOCK 86.54

8 BUGATTI/ELLE BOYD 84.66

9 FORSINI/LAENA ROMOND 66.17

10 CONNECT THE DOTS/JJ TORANO 65.33

11 CHAPPY/GREG CROLICK 63.71

12 CANNON BEACH/MICHAEL BRITT-LEON 63.33

Photo: Victoria Colvin on Dicoblue PS winning the $150,000 Hunter Spectacular at Wellington International.© Ken Braddick/Jumper-News.US