JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Aaron Vale rides Electric, the last horse to compete in Thursday's Open Jumper Stake at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show, to victory, edging longtime rival Tracy Fenney.

Should you be in first place in a big money open jumper class at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show one night and there are contestants yet to leap, you have to hope one of them isn't Aaron Vale.

Atop Electric, the last of 20 horses to appear in the $7,500 Open Jumper Stake Thursday night at the Salem Civic Center, Vale assumed the role of heartbreaker yet again.

With the very fast MTM Centano and rider Tracy Fenney already through two fault-free tours and the owner of a time to beat of 24.944 seconds, Vale had his objective squarely in front of him.

Problem was he didn't have all that much faith in his horse.

"He's a young horse, only 8, I don't even know his breed," Vale said. "I bought him last fall in England. He jumps well; he does not turn too well. I didn't think I had much of a chance to catch Tracy."

Nothing like knowing the competition. Vale and Fenney have been competing against each other since they were children in Texas.

"Thirty years," Fenney said.

Vale opened up the throttle, courting disaster all the way through his first round. All the fences remained in place when he raced across the finish line.

One more abbreviated turn to decide the class. For the last time, Vale and Electric mashed the accelerator.

From time to time, a gasp was heard from the hushed gallery as it appeared the horse wasn't going to clear. He did, though, every fence. The rider gave it one last nudge across the finish line.

The clock read 24.344, winner by a hair of a steed's mane.

"I thought I could catch Evan Coluccio for second place," Vale said. "I don't know. I just kept turning and kicking. My time was faster than her's. I don't really understand why I was faster."

These sorts of last-second Vale equestrian heroics are nothing new. The most successful rider in Grand Prix of Roanoke history, Vale has won that event nine times, producing the top ride with the last horse showing more than once.

Absent last year, Vale returns to Saturday night's Prix, the capper of the 37th Roanoke Valley Horse Show.

Vale's share of Thursday night's purse was $1,800. Fenney, riding at this show this week for the first time, earned $1,500.

Fenney had nothing but admiration for her second-place finisher.

"He was fabulous," said Fenney, who is from Flower Mound, Texas. "He's a big horse and he turns really tight. He did everything I asked him to, and I couldn't have asked him to do any more. I was really happy with him."

Fenney also had a successful run aboard S&L Willie, the fourth-place horse. Vale's second horse in the class, Danacar, was good for seventh.

Also in the money were Dare Devil and Evan Coluccio in third; Mary Lisa Leffler and Gerona 92 in fifth; Kimber with Joe Fargis up in sixth; and Hillary Simpson riding Annismindes Caesar in eighth.

First time on the civic center's tight track didn't seem to be an issue for Fenney.

"We're used to small rings," she said. "That's what everyone told us when we were talking about coming here: The ring's really tiny, the warm-up area is very small. That's fine for us."