Moon Over Bromont
by Karen Briggs

Only one one-hundredth of a penalty point separated first and second in the two-star division of this weekend's Bromont International CCI** -- but it was still Phillip Dutton who took home the ceremonial cooler.

Both Dusky Moon, the Aussie ex-racehorse, and Nova Top, the English Thoroughbred, posted clear stadium rounds under Dutton's expert piloting ... but a single time fault moved the chestnut Nova Top into the reserve position, with 53.01 pp, while bay Dusky Moon maintained his 53.0 pp score for the win.

Dutton's hat-trick was complete when Damien, a Thoroughbred/Hanoverian cross, took the third-place ribbon after having a single rail down in stadium to finish with 62.9 penalties.

In fact, the top three placings remained unchanged at the end of the Bromont CCI** competition, held in pleasant late-spring sunshine in the expansive Olympic sand ring below the grandstand. Kim Morani secured fourth spot with her dapple gray Test Run (71.5 pp), Canadian Team member Stuart Black was fifth with his and Elkins Weatherill's Wolftown (73.3 pp), and Nina Fout and Wild Frontier were sixth (73.51 pp).

31 of the original 45 competitors made it to the final phase of this weekend's CCI**. And Darren Chiacchia, bruised and limping, but unbowed, after his fall in the Griffiths-McBurney water complex yesterday with Felicia, returned to cheer on his student, 14-year-old Canadian Andrina Calder, who handily won the CCIY* division with her HerzPrinz. Chiacchia was in good spirits, having been diagnosed with severe bruising but no fractures of his lower anatomy ... and hopes to be back in the saddle within the week.

American Young Rider Owen Jones piloted his feisty mare, Bronwyn, to a second-place finish in the CCIY*, and Ontarian Katie Evans took third with the gray Lord Ledgerwood.

In the CCI* division, the stadium phase also proved less influential than usual (despite very few clear rounds!) and the top three placings remained the same. Mark Weissbecker and his fancy Thoroughbred/Dutch warmblood cross pinto, Decordova, took home the red first-place ribbon and the cooler by finishing on their dressage score of 47.51 pp, while Beale Wright-Morris and Jack the Lad maintained their second-place spot with a clear round, earning 51.0 pp. Denise Rath, of Great Falls, Virginia, claimed third with the big dapple gray, Just A Diplomat, imported from the UK. Rounding out the top five were Elizabeth Ricklefs and Jellicle Cat, whose clear round earned them a 61.01 pp total, and Kelli McMullen-Temple with Livingston (also clear, for a 62.5 pp total).