The lights of the midway, screams from the Ferris wheel and the smell of hot dogs andcotton candy only added fuel to the fire of a feisty Elu De La Hardiere. With Michael Walton aboard, he galloped to a repeat victory in the $50,000 Sussex County Grand Prix during the Sussex County Horse Show in Augusta, N.J., Aug. 8-14.

“Elu” and Walton, of Valley Forge, Pa., won the feature two years ago in a driving rainstorm, but a heat wave canceled any hope of rain. Last spring the pair won in the same ring at the Garden State (N.J.) horse show.

Walton returned to Sussex with three contenders. Besides Penlyn Farm’s Elu, a 13-year-old chestnut, he rode Penlyn’s La Rocco Jun and Free People Onze Fons.

“I wish my other two were in the jump-off too,” Walton said. “But [Elu] came through. He likes this place. He loves the atmosphere and came here with an attitude that we want to win.”

Elu, a 16.1-hand, Selle Franç¡©s stallion, was one of three horses who advanced from the 23-horse initial round to Eric Hasbrouck’s elimination track.

Hasbrouck used the entire sprawling ring, which was adjacent to the fair crowds and concessions. Run as the highlight of Saturday night, it is held under the glow of overhead spotlights, which created deep shadows along the track.

“The course was very good,” Walton said. “When you walked it, the course did not look overly big, but you know here everything rides much bigger than it walks.”

“It is spooky,” said Walton. “Everything always rides harder here. I think the fair scares a lot of them, but it helps this horse. He really likes the scary atmosphere.”

Walton faced off against Callan Solem on Quiet Winter Farm’s Allison, the first to go, and Ken Berkley, the last to go on Rivers Edge’s Maestro. An equipment failure put Solem out of contention early. She and her bay mare had just cleared the first fence when the safety bar on her stirrup broke and the leather gave way on the right side of her saddle. Knowing she could not beat her opponents and wishing to save her horse, she withdrew on course.

“That stirrup cost me a lot of money tonight,” said Carol Thompson, who co-owns Quiet Winter Farm with her husband Willard, a race horse trainer.

Berkley’s bay gelding lowered a rail on the second fence to finish second.

“This show was fun for us,” said Walton, 37. “We were first and second in the welcome class [with La Rocco Jun and Free People Onze Fons]. I didn’t jump Elu then because he doesn’t need to jump that class. I kind of used the atmosphere here to his advantage, so I let him come out and be surprised by it.”

Not Too Small

The $10,000 Lou Dobbs Tonight high junior/amateur-owner jumper classic drew 31 entries, with 15 clear rounds. Yet it was the almost pony-sized Regina and Cody Auer who flew around the course to come home first, in 35.89 seconds.

Auer, 18, of Fairfield, Conn., used Regina’s small stature and agility to win. “My little horse is much better at turning than long gallops. I think I made it up on the tight turns and the rollbacks. Regina is so straightforward and looks for jumps a lot,” she said.

The only troublesome spot on the course for Auer was at a vertical midway through the tiebreaker route. “Regina jumps so hard, and if I take her left, sometimes she bends out her back end. She tends to get a little crooked in her old age.”

Regina is the second horse Auer has ridden from the children’s and low divisions to the high junior/amateur-owner classes. “She brought me all the way,” said Auer. “She taught me confidence to go fast. I am so timid that with the horse I had before I would always have time faults. But Regina is such a quick horse across the ground that it definitely helped me to go fast and do tight turns.”

Regina, 18, has had a full career. Molly Ashe once rode the 15.1-hand mare. Leslie Burr Howard, one of Auer’s trainers, thought the mare would be perfect to help Auer move into jumpers, so a lease was arranged for Auer, who has now had the mare for two years.

Auer plans to enter Brown University (R.I.) this fall and possibly major in pre-med. Before that, she wants to be on her zone’s Prix des States jumper team at the Pennsylvania National and then end the season at the Syracuse (N.Y.) International. Auer is also trained by Tim Kees and Chris Cawley.

A Really Good Red

Dutch-born Chris Hill and her towering gelding, Volnay, nailed down the win in the low junior/amateur-owner jumper classic.

Hill, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., bought Volnay, a 12-year-old, French-bred chestnut, in Austria. “He is extremely scopey and can jump big, big fences,” said Hill.

“You know you can leave a stride out. You can add one, but I can also leave one or two out. That’s the beauty of his stride,” said Hill, 35.

A wine connoisseur, she named him after a fine red wine. “When you have a really good red, you call it ‘big red.’ My horse is a big red,” said Hill of her 17-hand mount.

She met her husband, Randy Hill, through a friend who raised grapes in France. She had told her friend she would like to have someone show her New York City, and her friend suggested Randy. A Thoroughbred trainer, Randy showed her the sights, and she moved to America five years ago. “I love it here,” said Chris.

She used to sell horses when she was abroad, but now she handles the public relations for her husband’s training business, RCH Stables. “Our horses race at Saratoga [N.Y.], Belmont [N.Y.], Gulf Stream Park [Fla.], all over the country,” said Hill, who trains with Mark Leone.

The short trip from her family’s Elan Farms in Milford, N.J., to the showgrounds proved fruitful for Flora Manship, who took the overall low junior/amateur-owner championship with her Platinum.

The bay, 16.2-hand, Thoroughbred-Hanoverian cross is aged, so Manship limits his outings to the low jumpers.

“He goes fast and might have been a speed horse when he was younger,” said the 18-year-old. “He is very sound and athletic, so you would think he is 10. He definitely is the winningest horse I have had. I will ride him in the jumpers a couple more years, then he will go to my mother who will do the adult amateurs with him.”

She found him 16 months ago through Laura Chapot.

Sly Fox Farm had a double winner in Vixen, champion of the green conformation and the green working hunter divisions. The bay, 16.1-hand, Belgian Warmblood mare has been first or second in all of her classes this year. Monica Rauschenbach co-owns the 6-year-old with trainer Brad Whitmire.

Whitmire, who also rode her to second place in the hunter classic, picked her out in Belgium. “She was very green when we got her, but it was her jumping form which was incredible. She was very rideable and very willing.”

She won her initial first year green classes her first time out last spring. She qualified for Devon (Pa.), but a stone bruise prevented her from going.

Whitmire also rode the reserve green champion, Rachel Spencer’s Will.