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New York City’s Georgina Bloomberg Rides Metropolitan to Victory in $75,000 Empire State Grand Prix

May 23, 2010

North Salem, New York --- New York City’s Georgina Bloomberg produced the only double clear round to win Sunday’s $75,000 Empire State Grand Prix, the concluding event of two weeks of competition at the Old Salem Farm Horse Shows in North Salem, New York. Riding her 10-year-old Selle Francais partner Metropolitan, Bloomberg topped an all-star field of thirty-three starters in the first round and then went on to beat two other riders in the jump-off against the clock for the Sunday victory.

Bloomberg’s win was truly a hometown triumph. Her farm, Gotham North, is just minutes away from the Old Salem Farm show grounds, a place where she began her equestrian career as a junior rider. Old Salem is a location that holds many fond memories, but at the same time was - up until today - one of the most challenging places for Bloomberg to compete.

“My first memories of ever watching a grand prix are here, all of my heroes used to ride here, and it is really the one grand prix, out of any of the others here in America, that I have always wanted to win,” Bloomberg said with a smile following her victory lap. “I’ve had good luck here in the past, but I’ve never been able to get that victory, so today it was great to win at the show I grew up at here at Old Salem.”

Bloomberg admitted that riding near home adds an extra measure of anxiety to all of her performances. “This isn’t the biggest class we do all year, but it has always been one of the toughest for me because, with all of my friends and family here watching, I end up putting a lot of extra pressure on myself to do well. I have more people coming to this horse show than I do at any other show throughout the year combined,” she laughed. “It was really special to be able to win in front of everybody here. I rode at this barn for thirteen years - every memory I have as a kid is here - and there couldn’t be a grand prix victory that means more to me,” she said.

Her father, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in attendance to see his daughter’s victory. And as Georgina pointed out with a smile, that combination of his attendance and her winning, doesn’t happen that often. “That’s the thing, I never ride well when he is here, and he is probably totally baffled as to why we spend so much money on horses. So yeah, it was really, really nice to be able to go out there and do that, and with my Mom here as well. It was nice to show him that I am not terrible, or at least that my horses aren’t terrible,” she laughed.

A flawless round in the tiebreaker sealed the deal for Bloomberg.

When Kate Levy and LLC’s Lirving de Volsin and David Tromp and Casey each had faults ahead of her, Bloomberg knew that all she had to do was go clean a second time. “That is a position I like to be in, especially with Metropolitan who is not a really quick horse. So that was my goal, just another clear round,” she explained.

Bloomberg will head to the Devon Horse Show next week, and then on to Calgary, Canada, for the rugged international competition at Spruce Meadows. “This is a horse I just stepped up to the Grand Prix level, and I am really excited about him,” Bloomberg said of her partner. “We’re going to go to Spruce Meadows now, so that will be another big test for him and for some of our other younger horses as well.”

“We’ve been really lucky both weeks to have such good weather here and be able to jump on the grass the entire time,” Bloomberg noted. “Old Salem has such a gorgeous grand prix field; it’s always a shame when we can’t use it because of rain.”

Bloomberg travels to Devon, Pennsylvania, next week and will compete for one of the most coveted prizes in American show jumping, the $100,000 Grand Prix of Devon on Thursday, June 3rd.

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