2004 Capital Challenge Horse Show

It Came Down to the Last Round

While Pletcher was leading going into the last round, Ferrell looked like she may have taken that victory away from him when she had the highest score of the day (91) on her final horse. But Pletcher knew he had nothing to lose, so he went for broke on his final horse and the judges noticed. That courage earned him the next to highest score of the night (90.6).

The class began with Ferrell taking the early lead with a score of 87.6 (Pletcher-86.6, Karazissis-85.2, Fish- 83.2). In the second round Karazissis and Pletcher tied with a score of 88.4 but when the scores of all the rounds were combined it was Pletcher leading with 175 with Karazissis not far behind (173.6), then Ferrell (173) and Fish (168.6). In round three the high score went to Ferrell (89), but overall Pletcher maintained the lead with 263.4 (Ferrell-262, Karazissis-259.8, Fish-256.5).

With only one round to go it was a fight to the finish. Fish went first and scored 86.87 for a final tally of 343.3. Then Ferrell put in a brilliant round (91) and her tally went to 353, putting a lot of pressure on the final two riders. Karazissis then scored 88.4 and totaled 348.20. Now it was Pletcher’s turn and he met the challenge. His total of 90.6 gave him a final total of 354, the closest margin in the history of this class. Pletcher’s bold performance was met by a loud applause from the audience and all five judges later agreed that his final round had impressed them, especially his bold gallop to the last stand alone jump.