TAMPA - Fences fell. Horses refused to jump. One horse and rider crashed through a jump and hit the ground. Another rider flew out of the saddle and narrowly missed being stepped on.
But Norman Dello Joio of Wellington managed to get two clear rounds to win the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational and $60,000 on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium. Beezie Madden of Cazenovia, N.Y., was only 2.15 seconds behind him to take second place and $44,000.
"This course is not for the weak-hearted," course designer Steve Stephens of Palmetto said before the show. His words proved prophetic.
Only five horse-and-rider partners out of a field of 35 made it through the challenging first round without a fault.
The tough track featured 14 obstacles - fences, walls, oxers and triple combinations with heights up to 5 feet 6 inches and spreads as wide as 6 feet 6 inches.
"It was a big course, hard to jump," said Dello Joio, 47, who also won the Invitational in 1978. His horse, Glasgow, a 13-year-old Dutch-bred, "was listening pretty well tonight," he said. "He was really focused and with me all the way."
"The course had some different turns and approaches," Madden said. "It didn't flow as natural as some courses, but I really liked it. It was very technical.
She said it was the first time her horse, the 9-year-old Dutch-bred Authentic, had competed in the stadium. "I was very pleased with his performance," she said. "He rose to the occasion."
Before the show, Stephens predicted that some horses would jump the course beautifully, while others would get stage fright and run into trouble. "This is an Olympic year, and these riders and horses are supposed to be Olympic caliber," he said.
Alison Firestone, 27, of Upperville, Va., and her horse, 14-year-old Swedish-bred Casanova, took third place and $26,000. The $16,000 fourth place went last year's champion, 37-year-old Chris Kappler of Pittstown, N.J., and his horse, 12-year-old Dutch-bred Royal Kaliber.
Among the notables in the audience were Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti to see their daughter Jessica receive awards for wins over fences during the Winter Equestrial Festival.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also was in the audience to watch his daughter Georgina compete for the first time in the invitational.
During the intermission between the first round and the jump-off, J. Russell Stewart, who had great success as a show jumper rider during the 1960s and 1970s, was inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. He accomplished the feat for which he is best known: three consecutive wins in the National Horse Show's famed Puissance Stake in 1965, 1966 and 1967.
Main Spring, a Canadian-bred gelding, also was inducted into the Hall of Fame. During the 1970s, the horse won many national and international show jumping championships under the piloting of Show Jumping Hall of Famers Frank Chapot and William Steinkraus. Steinkraus and Main Spring were in the U.S. silver-medal winning teaming in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Partnered with Chapot, the pair earned the King George V Gold Cup in London in 1974 and helped the United States clinch victory in the Nations Cup competition that year in New York.
The Show Jumping Hall of Fame and Museum at Busch Gardens in Tampa was established in 1987. It was formed to promote the sport of show jumping and to immortalize the legends of the sport.
