By Jeffrey Howard, Sarah Smith and Sara Engel
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The inaugural Celebration Fall Classic hosted many of the industry’s top horses and included past World and World Grand Champions. “One of the things that makes the Celebration grounds special is people bring their best and that is what we saw at our inaugural show,” said Celebration CEO and Fall Classic Show Manager Dr. Doyle Meadows.
The Fall Classic was held on the historic show grounds of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in the outdoor arena on October 14-16, 2010. Pleasant days and cool nights greeted the spectators. Paid attendance over the three nights of the show was 3,829.
Entries were strong in the performance divisions and especially in the highly competitive Riders’ Cup classes. The Celebration Fall Classic was a triple-point Riders’ Cup show, one of only three triple-point shows in the industry. There were a total of 12 Riders’ Cup classes over the three nights with 101 entries in those 12 classes alone. Topping the entries was the Two-Year-Old Stallions class with 17 top entries.
In total the three nights and 48 classes saw 320 entries. Thursday night hosted 110 entries, Friday night had 119 entries and Saturday ended with 91 entries. “The atmosphere around the whole show was very positive and it seemed that people were excited about being there,” said Meadows.
“I intend to meet with a group of owners and trainers later this fall or winter and see how we can proceed with a Fall Classic in coming years and have a dominant Walking Horse show,” concluded Meadows.
Indicative of the top talent at the show was the championship stake class. Winning the class were current World Champions The Golden Sovereign and Tim Smith. The Golden Sovereign is owned by the Evergreen Walking Horse Farm and has claimed three first place ribbons this year and three reserve finishes.
Finishing second were current reserve World Champion More of the Major and John Allan Callaway. Callaway directed the talented More of the Major to a world championship title in 2009 in the Young Trainers division.
In third were Sky Miles and Jimmy McConnell. Sky Miles was the 2009 Amateur Four-Year-Old World Champion with Beth Sims and claimed top honors at two of the industry’s top venues in 2010, The National Trainers’ Show and Tony Rice horse show.
Finishing fourth were current Amateur Pony World Grand Champion I’m Packin’ A Pistol and Chad Williams. Charlene Gibson directed the talented pony to the World Grand Championship, a title the duo defended successfully from their spotlight ride in 2008.
Click here for complete results and judges cards. Complete editorial coverage can be found in the October 25th issue of the Walking Horse Report.