Steven Turilli couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the Colorado Summer Classic Horse Show Grand Prix – he finished second while a rider he trained was first.

Alexandra Vanderrest, who was riding Oxsona M, dazzled the standing room-only crowd Saturday at the Norris Penrose Event Center with a pair of flawless rides through the 15-jump course. Turilli was pleased with the outcome.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “It never hurts when your client and good friend beats you.”

With the victory, Vanderrest won $25,000, while Turilli took a purse of $13,000 on Burberry. The pair beat a field of 22 horses. Brandie Holloway came in third on Argentina.

Vanderrest’s win did not come without some bumps in the road. Before taking the course with Oxsona M, Vanderrest rode Boy George, who didn’t treat his rider kindly.

“Yeah, when I was on Boy George we came up to a jump and he jumped really high,” she said. “So high that I actually fell off. It was tough getting back up from that, but it wasn’t that hard of a fall.”

In between rides, Turilli got a glimpse of Vanderrest taking a spill, but he said it had nothing to do with errors on her end or Boy George’s.

“The reason is because she was dislodged by the horse’s power,” he said. “She didn’t make a mistake and nothing went wrong. It was just that the horse jumped a little too high over the fence.”

Vanderrest’s fall didn’t affect her will to win. She said she had trained too hard and come too far to let this moment pass.

“I’ve only been with (Oxsona M) for about a year now, but every time I ride her, I feel more and more comfortable with her,” she said.

Texas’ Connor Rowe made sure the game-ending home run Friday night against Arizona State wasn’t a walk-off. Photo by AP PHOTO