Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Tracy Fenney rides MTM Centano to victory in the Grand Prix at Salem Civic Center on Saturday.

Tracy Fenney of Flower Mound, Texas, won the $50,000 Grand Prix of Roanoke for the second straight year, this time on a different horse.

Rob Turner rides Sightline to win the Three-Gaited Championship at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show at Salem Civic Center.

Different horse, same result for Tracy Fenney.

Capping a spectacular week of show jumping at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show, Tracy Fenney rode MTM Centano to a rousing championship in the $50,000 Grand Prix of Roanoke Saturday night.

A substantial Salem Civic Center audience hooted and hollered as Fenney edged fellow Texan Aaron Vale for first place in the six-horse jump-off tie-breaker. Fenney, who first appeared at this show last year, was the defending Prix champion aboard S&L Willie, who also qualified for the jump-off and finished fourth.

None of the horses over the shorter course in the extra period came home fault-free. Fenney took down one fence rail for four faults but still blazed through with a time of 41.007 seconds. She then had to suppress whatever anxiety she might have had as Vale, he of the record nine Prix wins here, appeared next to last in the jump-off with previously unheralded Wilkie Van't Merlesnest, a 10-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare.

"It was terrible," Fenney said. "It's always rough going near the beginning then having to wait for the rest of the class."

A last minute entry, Wilkie ended with eight faults and sixth place.

"I was thrilled with her performance," Vale said. "This was her first Grand Prix."

Vale settled for second after piloting Tarco, another Belgian, through a 41.426-second, four-fault jump-off tour.

Third went to Aragon, Mathias Hollberg up, the last rider through the extra period.

"I knew all I had to do was go clean," he said. "I was in good position, actually. My horse over-jumped the first jump more than I expected, therefore I rode the second jump harder than I wanted to. There was the rail, a little unlucky."

S&L Willie was fourth; Trillion and amateur Mary Elizabeth Moore, yet another Texan, was fifth. Seventh went to Mike McCormick, Fenney's husband and trainer, who rode MTM Remington. That horse won the Wednesday night Speed class, giving the family victories in all four of the major jumper classes this week. Fenney and Tenfold won the Welcome Jumper Stake and she partnered with Centano again to win the Thursday night class.

The Saturday night contest was the stiffest of the week for Fenney.

"Hey, it don't hurt to be lucky sometimes," McCormick said. "Lucky is good."

Other ribbon winners included eighth place Gerona 92 and Mary Lisa Leffler, the 2006 winner here; Big Air with Harold Chopping in the saddle for ninth; Little John with Eliza Shuford in the irons was 10th; MTM Timon, another McCormick-trained horses ridden by Fenney, was 11th; and Angel Karolyi rode James T. Kirk to 12th.

There were also 14 other classes Saturday night. In the last saddle horse class of the evening, the $5,000 Five-Gaited Championship, the rider came all the way from the far southwest of New Hampshire to clean up the two big money classes. The horse he rode in the last class came all the way back from major surgery. His mount in the $3,500 Three-Gaited Championship was already a championship class horse.

Worthy's World to Know, a 6-year-old chestnut Five-Gaited ridden by Rob Turner, outpaced runner-up Heir to the Moon, Steve Demjen riding, and third place Catlino with Phyllis Brookshire, to collect the $1,200 blue ribbon share of the purse.

Turner said he had been coming to this show "off and on for 12-15 years," but it was the first time he'd won the gaited classes.

Worth's World to Know is coming off major pelvic surgery that cost it all of last year's season.

"He's a young, inexperienced horse, late in his training," Turner said. "I knew I had a nice horse. He got in a little trouble, got a little scared there at end. He's a good horse. Once he gets some mileage under his belt, he'll be a contender just about anywhere."

Sightline, the Three-Gaited champ, was already a championship class horse.