The CGA winds down every day with nightly match races, which can
put riders, horses and fans on edge
TRES PINOS
It’s partly the nighttime atmosphere, where the tower lights, setting sun and kicked-up dust create an eerie golden glow in the Bolado Park arena. It’s also partly the head-to-head, bracketed-style of competition, where the adrenaline of both rider and horse rises in anticipation with each elimination race.
But the main appeal to the California Gymkhana Association’s nightly match races — the main difference that sets the event apart from the regular fare of the day’s state championship events — supplies everyone involved, from the riders to the fans, with much more than just a rooting interest.
The match race is considered the most exciting part of the weeklong State Championship Finals at Bolado Park, and for good reason.
“Well, there is money involved,” said Jamie Tsuji of Watsonville, who competed in Tuesday night’s match races.
The nighttime-only event takes the top 16 riders from that day’s competitions — on Tuesday, figure-8 stake, speed barrels and poles II were in action — and pits them in a March Madness-style bracket where 16 riders turns into eight riders after the first round, then to four, and then to two before a champion is decided.
And unlike the day’s events, where some 200 riders shoot for the fastest time in order to claim a state-championship buckle, the match races are one-on-one with a cash prize on the line.
“I don’t know about everybody’s horse, but my horse gets competitive,” said Tsuji, 17, who rode upon Awesome Possum, also known as Possum or P-Man, on Tuesday night. “When the people cheer, it gets more exciting. All the attention is on that one specific event.
“It’s kind of nerve-racking.”
That’s partly because the crowd is invested in the race — literally. A Calcutta auction is held before the event, where fans and spectators bid on each horse and rider, with all of the money going into a single pool. Bids normally start off at $25 for the 16th-seeded rider, and increase to upwards of $200 for the top rider from earlier in the day.
Whichever horse and rider wins the match race, the pool of money is then divided 60/40 between the winning bidder and the winning rider, with the rider picking up an additional $100 from the CGA, as well as a buckle.
“The money is definitely the biggest thing, for the buyer and the rider,” said Victoria Scott-Edwards of Mira Loma, who advanced to the semifinal round of the figure-8 stake competition on Tuesday when both she and her opponent, Tsuji, were disqualified for breaking the starting line too early.
The anti-climactic ending supplied the winner of the other semifinal, Makayla Babiy, with the match-race title, a buckle and $416 from the Calcutta auction. It was also Babiy, formerly Makayla Foster, who was named Overall Match Race champion at last year’s state championships when she posted three first-place finishes and two runner-up standings, and earned an additional $500 as well.
Tuesday’s $790 pot in the figure-8 stake, and later the $1,010 pot in the speed barrels, was considered small winnings by one race official. On Monday, the total pot for clover-leaf barrels totaled $1,935, which would have supplied the winning rider with an $874 payout.
Not bad for roughly 10 seconds worth of work.
“But the anxiety factors in — all the buzzers and everyone screaming at you,” Scott-Edwards said.
“My horse, during the normal events, he’s a lot easier to control,” Tsuji added. “I haven’t figured him out yet.”
Of course, there are those rare instances when the full pot goes to the same household.
With a well-timed start, Lisa Bradley of Elk Grove won the speed barrels final on Tuesday night and walked away with an additional $466 in her pocket. The other $544 in the pot went to her husband, John, who shelled out all of $25 on his wife to earn the winning bid.
“She gets 40 percent of the pot and I get 60 percent of the pot,” John said. “It’s the best $25 I ever spent on her.”
Lisa Bradley’s inclusion in the nighttime match races wasn’t concrete after the day’s event, though. She recorded the 21st fastest time in speed barrels earlier on Tuesday, and only found herself in the top 16 for the match races after several competitors dropped out.
“I was the slowest qualifier of anyone racing tonight,” said Bradley, who has won approximately 10 match races since she started competing in gymkhana in 1980.
“Your adrenaline is going, the buzzer sounds, you’re racing against someone,” Bradley added, “your horse’s adrenaline is different, too. You ride so much different at night than you do during the day.”
Perhaps the one-on-one competition helped her horse, too. Bradley’s thoroughbred horse, Her Terms, also known as Taylor, is the granddaughter of Seattle Slew, who won the Triple Crown in 1977 — an interesting fact that makes John’s winning bid look like a steal.
Bradley won the saddle as overall champion within the ‘AAA’ division last year atop Taylor. The results haven’t been the same this year, although Tuesday’s improbable match-race win, and the additional money that came along with it, could change all of that.
“She’s been pretty consistent. I’ve been off,” Bradley said. “She’s been doing her job. It’s just been rider error.
“When you’re out there, your heart races faster.”
Roquel Merrick won the poles II match race on Tuesday night. The California Gymkhana Association State Championship Finals will conclude on Friday at Bolado Park with make-up events to be held Saturday, if necessary. Check out Tuesday’s edition of the Hollister Free Lance for a recap of the week’s events.
