PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
February 20, 2006

OCALA, FL (February 20, 2006) -- Aaron Vale galloped away with his third Grand Prix victory at the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit when he won Sunday's $50,000 Duggan Equipment Grand Prix. Serval, an eleven-year-old gelding owned by the Serval Group was his mount for the win.

A new horse for Vale, Serval is already showing some great potential. The pair also won the $25,000 HITS Grand Prix in week 2, and they took second place in Thursday's $25,000 Grand Prix—a class Aaron Vale says they should have won, but for a bit of misbehaving on Serval's part.

"I was a little upset with him because after I jumped the last fence and egged him on to go through the timers, he picked up his head and kicked and bucked instead of speeding up." Valuable fractions of a second lost gave the win to Callan Solem. "He behaved himself this time," joked Vale after his win on Sunday.

Javier Fernandez of Guadalajara, Mexico set the test for the class of thirty starters. His twelve-obstacle course had a difficult line to the triple combination, and rails came down for eleven riders there.

"It was a hard course and I was actually surprised that there were five clean," commented Aaron Vale. "I have some friends who compete in Mexico and down there Javier is known as a tough course designer."

Mary Lisa Leffler opened the jump-off round aboard Gerona 92. Leffler cleared all the jumps in a time of 47.66 seconds.

David Jennings and Costa Sur took their trip, finishing with 12 faults and 53.44 seconds on the clock.

Aaron Vale and Serval were the next to challenge Leffler's time. "I thought if I took the same track that Mary Lisa took then I could be faster because my horse is quicker across the ground. I was a little worried about the vertical at no. 2, so I took a bit of a wide turn there. It was a long jump-off, so I figured I could take that wide turn and then make up for it gradually over the rest of the course." Aaron Vale's strategy worked giving him a time of 45.59 seconds, two seconds faster than Mary Lisa Leffler.

Canadian Kyle Dewar set out to chase Aaron Vale's time, and he gave it a good shot aboard Braveheart. Dewar finished his round in 46.59 seconds, one second shy to give him second place.

Aaron Vale finished out the competition with his second mount Droxello owned by Hollow Creek Investments. The nine-year-old gelding gave a refusal at the vertical, no. 2, and Vale cruised the rest of the way home to finish with some time faults. His eleven-fault round was still good enough for fourth place.

" He is still very young and inexperienced, especially when it comes to the jump-off," said Vale of Droxello. "Typically he is very good on a right turn back to a vertical, so I tried to cut it a little short from 1 to 2. He just got a little mixed up, so then I eased him around and he jumped the rest of the fences super."

The next Grand Prix show jumping event at HITS Ocala will be the $25,000 HITS Grand Prix on Thursday, February 23. The $50,000 Footings Unlimited Grand Prix will finish out the week on Sunday, February 26.

Other major award winners at HITS II Ocala Winter Festival included:

HBO Children's Medal (Pony) - Erica Levy, Safety Harbor, FL
HBO Children's Medal (Horse) - Danielle Johnson, Andover, MA
HBO Adult Medal - Tracy Harmon, Glen Allen, VA
Farnam Adult Hunter Division Champion (18-35) - Esperanza ridden by Emily Mercer and owned by Kimberly Ryon
Farnam Adult Hunter Division Champion (36-45) - Kassaria ridden by Susan Ross and owned by Providence Hill Farm
Farnam Adult Hunter Division Champion (46 & over) - Cachet ridden and owned by Lee Cesery, Jacksonville, FL
Adequan® Open Hunter Division Champion - Pour La Vie ridden by Erynn Ballard, Hornby, ON and owned by Augustin Walch
Marshall & Sterling Children's Hunter Classic - Poster Boy ridden by Nicolette Santoro and owned by Caroline Weingart
Marshall & Sterling Adult Hunter Classic - Quiet Arrival ridden and owned by Jodi Czaplick, Long Island, New York (3rd week in a row)
Marshall & Sterling Child Jumper Classic - Miss Kitty ridden and owned by Margaret Reiney
Marshall & Sterling Adult Jumper Classic - Lizzapei ridden and owned by Kara Delaurentis

For complete horse show results please visit http://www.hitsshows.com.

$50,000 Duggan Equipment Grand Prix - Sunday, February 19, 2006
HITS II - Ocala Winter Festival, Ocala, FL
Course Designer: Javier Fernandez, Guadalajara, Mexico

MEDIA CONTACT: Mary Creech, HITS Media & Public Relations, 319 Main Street, Saugerties, New York 12477-1330. Tel: 845-246-8833, Fax: 845-246-6371, E-Mail: mcreech@frontiernet.net. Web: www.HitsShows.com