Michael Tokaruk and Trademark Darmanville are one-for-one in their $10,000 USHJA International Derby debut! Friday morning, Tokaruk, of Tokaruk Show Stables, guided Trademark Darmanville or “Trio” over the horse’s first derby course to date. The gelding took to the field like a fish to water and effortlessly cleared each fence, showing off his conventional beauty and scope. In a field of 19 entries, Mindy Coretz won the classic round of the class aboard Happy Hour, and Tokaruk won the handy round on his first of two entries in the class. Tokaruk won the entire class by just half a point, sending Coretz into second place, followed by Natalee Haggan on MTM Here’s 2 You and Kelley Buringa on Udarko.
Photo by Mary Neiberg
In the handy round, Coretz received a 96.5 and 90 (186.5) and Tokaruk received a 96 and 100 (196) from two panels of judges. Skip Bailey presented a complex handy course, which involved the return of the “Santa Fe Star,” incorporating any combination of two of four total hay bales presented in a star formation, followed by a railroad tie jump in the middle of the complex.
Tokaruk is thrilled with Trio’s performance in the horse’s first derby, but isn’t surprised that his athletic derby partner, owned by Maple Ridge Investments, LLC., excelled in the class, “I’ve jumped him in Grand Prix classes. I’ve done everything I could in the jumper ring and thought I’d try the derbies. He is brave, has tons of stride and jump, and doesn’t scare about spooky jumps or scary handy elements. I had confidence in his bravery and knew we had to give it a shot. Mindy’s horse is spectacular and was ahead in the first round, so I had to do something to catch up.” Tokaruk’s smooth trot jump, dramatic hand gallop, calculated inside turns, difficult track through the Santa Fe Star and breathtaking air-time sealed him the win.
Photo by Mary Neiberg
It was a beautiful and breezy morning on the derby field and Tokaruk finished his interview saying, “You’re only as good as your horse. I’m grateful that wonderful people have sent me their horses to train, show, and sell. This is about as fun of a hunter derby as it can get—in a beautiful field, over beautiful jumps, on a pretty morning…How lucky are we for doing this!?”
HIPICO Santa Fe is honored to have Tokaruk here for three weeks and proud of his success in a variety of the specialty classes offered at the Santa Fe Summer Series, including his consistent placing in Grand Prix and Welcome Stake classes, along with his victory in the $1,000 Professional Equitation on Thursday.
Photo by Mary Neiberg