On the last ride of the Open Jump Stake event, the noted rider comes through with a winner.By Ray Cox, Roanoke Times
Should you be in first place in a big money open jumper class at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show one night and there are contestants yet to leap, you have to hope one of them isn't Aaron Vale.
Atop Electric, the last of 20 horses to appear in the $7,500 Open Jumper Stake Thursday night at the Salem Civic Center, Vale assumed the role of heartbreaker yet again.
With the very fast MTM Centano and rider Tracy Fenney already through two fault-free tours and the owner of a time to beat of 24.944 seconds, Vale had his objective squarely in front of him.
Problem was he didn't have all that much faith in his horse.
"He's a young horse, only 8, I don't even know his breed," Vale said. "I bought him last fall in England. He jumps well; he does not turn too well. I didn't think I had much of a chance to catch Tracy."
Nothing like knowing the competition. Vale and Fenney have been competing against each other since they were children in Texas.
"Thirty years," Fenney said.
Vale opened up the throttle, courting disaster all the way through his first round. All the fences remained in place when he raced across the finish line.
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