WHO WANTS TO JUMP THE JOKER

Open Jumping is a breed apart, an extreme of equine performance sports. Tonight's $7,500 Gambler's Choice, sponsored by L.B. Smith Jaguar, was enjoyably representative. The ring is filled with colorful fences, each numbered with a playing card placard giving its value. Riders choose their own course to accrue the highest point count. Only fences jumped cleanly count, it was cunning and chaos for 50 seconds. Then, the moment of truth: Jump the 200 point Joker-- pounce on the lead! Or, drop the top rail and slink back to the pack? The Joker is the highest fence, at 5'3" and it's value is deducted if missed. Twenty short seconds, accompanied by the Jeopardy theme, for the rider to do the math and decide if the Joker was a good bet!

First on course was True Grit with Laura Chapot calling the shots. With graceful intensity, they chased around the course, focused on high value fences, jumping forwards and back. Their finish over the Joker set the standard high at 1090 points. Margie Engle and Laura Kraut, both on this year's Olympic team, tried the Joker. Engle's effort kept Reggae in the running, but Zmax rolled that rail and dropped out of contention. Despite the height, most competitors gambled on the Joker successfully, for two it was a bad choice. The audience loved it either way.

McLain Ward riding his horse, Four Seasons, won by the simplest margins. Following a similar track to True Grit, he had enough time at the end to jump the cheapest fence on the course, a 20 pointer. That 20 plus the 200 gave him a total of 1110.

For most time didn't seem as important as points, but a three-way tie for second place was broken by time. Leslie Howard on Wichita in spite of bouncing the Joker's top rail in its cups, matched Chapot's score, but stopped the clock at 4 seconds faster. Third place went to True Grit. Pico De Gallo with Lynne Little up, was fourth only about a tenth of a second behind Chapot.

The Open Jumper Speed High Score Championship went to McLain Ward and Four Seasons for his combined performances in the Keystone Speed Challenge Tuesday and the Gambler's Choice. Wichita and Pandora, ridden by Todd Minikus, tied for the Reserve honors.

The tension of high stakes jumping gave way to the nostalgic grace of Ladies sidesaddle Hunter Hack, followed by a variety of equine disciplines, roadsters, Saddlebreds, and western pleasure. Competition took a turn at Polo in an exhibition chukker as the multi-breed nature of the Penn National Horse Show begins to show.

The Horse Show continues through Saturday and the $50,000 Budweiser Prix de Penn National and nightly exhibitions by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.