Devon, Pa., June 2

“Do I… or don’t I?” wondered Kevin Babington as he cantered Mark Q into the Dixon Oval for the jump-off of the $100,000 Wells Fargo Grand Prix of Devon. He still hadn’t decided whether he’d attempt a daring inside turn to a massive triple bar fence.

But after the first few jumps didn’t go quite the way he’d planned, he knew he had to do something drastic to take the lead. “I was hoping to get a better shot to the third jump in the jump-off; I got there a bit slow. Then, I got a bit slower distance than I’d hoped back to the double, so I got to the point where I knew if I had any chance of winning it, I had to do the inside turn to the triple bar. Even though I did, when I came out, I knew there was definitely room to beat my time,” said Babington.

As the third to go in an eight-horse jump-off, Babington shaved more than a second off the time Callan Solem had set as first to go on VDL Torlando. Solem knew she hadn’t set the bar very high with her round. “I was planning on going inside after the first jump in the jump-off, and he just got a bit spooky in front of the first jump, and I lost my line a bit and couldn’t get it done. I know I lost time there a bit,” she said. 

But Babington’s time was also definitely beatable. In fact, the second to go—17-year-old Katie Dinan—had been more than a second faster, though she had a rail.

So they all ran, but no one could top the time and leave all the rails in the cups. Todd Minikus—back in action for the first time after a winter spent recuperating from a broken collarbone and a life-threatening illness—made the most dramatic bid, shifting Pavarotti into the high gear that had the chestnut’s mane flying and the crowd gasping. “I didn’t want to do that stupid inside turn to the triple bar, but Kevin forced us to do it! I was thinking that maybe I could be fast enough and run around, but I realized I had to go inside,” Minikus said. The inside turn worked out, but another slice on course backfired.

“I thought it was pretty quick in the first part, but I cut in a little bit too much to the in-and-out, and when I gassed Pavarotti off the turn, he slipped a bit and got a bit reachy to the A element and got a bit close to B and just ticked it. I had thought that was the once place I could maybe catch Kevin,” Minikus said.

Minikus and Pavarotti were almost 4 seconds faster than Babington and Mark Q, but the rail put them in third. In the end, Solem’s slower round as first to go and Babington’s round as third to go were the only clean rounds of the jump-off. 

The Next Big One?

It was a particularly gratifying win for the Irish rider Babington because his home base is just down the road in Gwynedd Valley, Pa. “It’s fantastic. Every student I’ve ever given a lesson to is probably here tonight! All day, I’ve been seeing people I haven’t seen in 20 years or so,” he said.

And Mark Q proved to Babington that he’s a talented young horse for the future. Babington’s international star, Carling King, carried him to fourth place individually at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and many Nations Cup victories with the Irish team. But Carling King retired in 2007, and Babington has been on the hunt for his successor ever since. Mark Q arrived in his barn from Ireland in December and immediately impressed him.

Mark Q, a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Obos Quality 004—Abbey Emerald), got good ribbons in the 1.45-meter division and smaller grand prix classes during the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.). Then, in May, he was second in the $45,000 Junior Essex Troop Garden State Grand Prix (N.J.). Babington is in the process of putting a group together to buy the horse from Richard Burns, who sent him over from Ireland.

“He’s an absolute fighter. The first round tonight was a bit hairy. He was a bit overwhelmed and ran out of scope in places. But then he came back in the jump-off and jumped very scopey, so he’s a deceivingly scopey horse,” Babington said. “I’m hoping he’ll put me back on the team a bit; it’s a big difference between getting on the team and going to a championship, but I’d love to think that he could get me back riding in Europe a bit next year. 

Watch Babington and Mark Q’s first round….

Lucky To Be Alive

Todd Minikus has been known to make his own luck on course, thrilling the crowd with his daring gallops and turns. But this spring, he had to rely on his luck just to survive.

Minikus’ winter started badly, when in January, he broke his collarbone in a fall from a horse. It was repaired with a plate and 10 screws, so Minikus had to wait until early March to start showing again. He and Pavarotti won the $31,000 WEF Challenge Cup Series on March 3, but the circuit ended the next week.

Then, in early April, Minikus fell ill. “I was feeling great, and then one evening, I got the chills, and from that point on, it all went downhill,” Minikus said. He was hospitalized and eventually diagnosed with Legionnaire’s Disease, a bacterial infection of the lungs, which is a bit like pneumonia. Minikus was in the hospital for most of April. “I was lucky to get out of there is what they tell me. That took a lot out of me. When I got out of the hospital, I could barely sit up. I’d go to the farm and sit in the golf cart all hunched over,” Minikus said. Minkus got out of the hospital just six weeks before the Devon grand prix.

“It seems like we’re back in order and fighting fit, so it’s good to be back. We’ll have to see what the rest of the summer brings for us,” Minikus said.

Solem patted him on the back and said: “The sport’s lucky to have you back. You make us all ride better; you’ve certainly taught me to try harder!”

Read all the Chronicle’s Devon coverage.

Check out all the Devon results.