Who else watched the Central Park Grand Prix last night?! It was really exciting seeing some equestrian (that wasn’t horse racing) on a major sports network! I missed the beginning, but I was able to catch most of the competition. This Grand Prix, presented by Rolex, was the first time they have had a horse show in Central Park. The arena was actually the Trump ice rink that they had converted! Crazy, right?! Mr. Trump attended the show too, they showed an interview clip with him. It was really neat getting to see a show in the middle of the city like that, skyscrapers in the background.

Some of the American riders competing were Todd Minikus, Laura Kraut, Mclain Ward, Kent Farrington, Jessica Springsteen, Georgina Bloomberg, Charlie Jayne, and others. No one was clear except for Charlie Jayne. In my opinion, the ring looked rather small with difficult turns to each jump. It appeared that each jump came up really fast off the turns which likely caused so many to have rails. Jayne had a great ride though. Unlike most shows, they still had a jump-off (for the crowd) with the top six riders, where Georgina Bloomberg beat Charlie Jayne by a little over a second! She had a great jump-off round with no rails. The prize money was $210,000; and she won a Rolex watch as well!

All in all, it was a really exciting event to watch and I hope to see more live equestrian events on NBC Sports!

For more information on the show and results go to http://www.chronofhorse.com.