CASINO CLASSIC - Class 3

The first class for Saturday evening was the Casino Classic which was a 1.60m, Table A competition and this was won in fine style by reigning Olympic Gold medalist, Rodrigo Pessoa riding Nicole Marie de Preaube's legendary stallion, the 16 year old Balaoubet du Rouet when they produced double clear juming with a jump off time of 27.06secs beating Ireland's Jessica Kurten by a mere 0.78secs. Jessica was in the saddle of Lady Georgina's Quibell, the 11 year old mare by Quidam de Revel.

Rodrigo collected USD25,000 for this win and Jessica picked up USD18,000 for her second placing.

Third place in the lineup went to Germany's Marcus Ehning with Bayside Farm's Capitol 1 mare, Gitania 8 and 4th place went to Canada's Ian Millar with In Style. Fifth place went to America's Anne Kursininski with Roxanna 112 and sixth position belonged to fellow countryman McLain Ward with Oasis.

The last two money placings went to Britain's Michael Whitaker who claimed 7th place with the mare Portofino and 8th placing went to Germany's Marco Kutscher riding I Cash 63. Missing out on the money but also producing a double clear was Germany's Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Checkmate 4.

Nick Skelton and Arko came in at 10th placing when they collected a time penatly in the jump off.

RIDE & DRIVE QUALIFIER - Class 4a

The top 10 from a start list of 23 combinations were to ride through to the final Ride & Drive class which had as 1st place prize a car - so everyone was into this fun event which saw riders negotiate a course of fences on their horses and then jump off to navigate their way around an obstacle course in the cars provided by organisers.

Jessica Kurten made quite sure she was to go through to the final when she won the qualifying event by 0.60 secs from Markus Fuchs for Switzerland. Robert Smith, Malin Baryard-Johnsson, Lauren Hough, Steve Guerdat, Richard Spooner, Michael Whitaker, Schuyler Riley and Marco Kutscher all went through to the final.

RIDE & DRIVE FINAL - Class 4

In a helter-skelter event, Steve Guerdat for Switzerland took home the car when he and Stal Tops BV's Hermes Rouge took first place honours achieved by obviously good riding and good driving! Robert Smith for Britain was in second place with the 11 year old Irish gelding, Gerry Maguire, picking up USD20,000 for their work.

Third place money of USD15,000 also went to Britain for Michael Whitaker and Iqbal des Hayettes efforts and Ireland's Jessica Kurten claimed the USD10,000 for 4th place in the event.

Marco Kutscher took home USD5,500 for 5th place with Pablo and America's Schuyler Riley and Punker claimed the USD4,500 for 6th place. Malin Baryard-Johnsson and H&M Tamina took the 7th place money of USD2,500 as did Lauren Hough and Nagano, Richard Spooner and Taylor Made and Markus Fuchs and Royal Charmer.

LAS VEGAS WORLD INVITATIONAL GRAND PRIX - Class 5

The final class of this fabulously glamorous weekend of showjumping was the one everyone was waiting for and the class all 25 starters wanted to win as the winner would walk away with USD250,000 which is not bad for a couple of minutes in the ring!

The event was hard fought with just six combinations producing clear rounds for a jump off. FOur of the six managed to jump double clear rounds and the final results saw Rodrigo Pessoa emerge victorious with his "pal" Baloubet du Rouet as they produced perfect jumping to finish with a jump off time of 29.64secs.

Nick Skelton and the exceptional 11 year old Argentinus stallion, Arko, owned by John, Pat and Lisa Hales also jumped a super jump off to take second place by 0.81secs picking up USD178,000 for their trouble.

Rated number two on the world rankings, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum ran 1.89secs behind Pessoa to take third placing with Checkmate 4 and collected USD114,500 for her 31.53secs in the arena for the jump off.

Michael Whitaker collected USD75,000 for his 4th placing riding Portofino when he jumped double clear and had a jump off time of 31.62secs, just 0.09secs behind Michaels-Beerbaum.

Ireland's Jessica Kurten and Quibell lowered just the one fence in the jump off and went home with USD35,750 for their effort. Germany's Lars Nieberg took 6th place with Loreana and claimed for USD26,250.

Malin Baryard-Johnsson for Sweden claimed the 7th place money of USD21,500 as the fastest four faulter in round one and 8th place went to America's Lauren Hough who took USD17,000.

Marco Kutscher for Germany was in 9th place with ICash 63 and Otto Becker, also for Germany was 10th placegetter riding Grandilot. Canada's Ian Millar and In Style had USD8,000 to spend when they landed 11th place and 12th place, also claiming USD8,000 went to Germany's Marcus Ehning and Gitania 8 who lowered two fences in round one!

So at the completion of this event which will surely become a permanent fixture on the showjumping calendar, Rodrigo Pessoa added USD284,000 to his bank balance after taking two 1st placings, an equal 3rd and a 7th placing! Not bad for a visit to America, where he no doubt caught up with wife, Keri's family combining family and competition!