FEBRUARY 18, 2012 – WELLINGTON,FL – Olympian Margie Engle led a team of amateur riders to victory Friday night in a pro-am charity event, capturing the $150,000 first-place prize for the Wellington PTO/PTA.
Engle, Caroline Spogli and Gabby Stern finished the three-part course in 90.32 seconds for the win in the third annual FTI Great Charity Challenge at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. Nearly $1.1 million in prize money was distributed to 32 nonprofits with Palm Beach County ties.
Engle’s team, sponsored by the Spogli family and Graffito South, bested the second-place team of Venezuelan Olympian Pablo Barrios and amateurs Emmanuel Andrade and Carolina Mirabal, representing Place of Hope. Barrios’ team — which took first place last year — finished in 91.78 seconds, giving Place of Hope $125,000.
Brianne Goutal led the third-place team of Chase Boggio and Megan McPherson (92.55 seconds), winning $100,000 for Gulfstream Goodwill.
Each of the 32 charities received prize money, with the last three places receiving $10,000 each.
Engle won the inaugural Charity Challenge in 2010, representing Liliane Stransky’s Step by Step Foundation. Spogli rode in last year’s competition; but for Stern, this was her first time.
“I was worried my horse was going to be wild, because he was wild in the schooling ring, but he was perfect,” Stern said.
Spogli, who rode the second leg of the Anthony D’Ambrosio-designed course, took off exactly as Stern landed from the first leg.
“My horse was so amazing and so fast, and he really wanted to win tonight,” Spogli said.
Spogli trains with Ken and Emily Smith, and Stern trains with Engle. Both said it was “an honor” to compete with Engle, who has 197 major grand prix wins to her name.
Engle, who is known for her go-for-broke jumpoffs, anchored the team with a lightning-fast round, galloping through the timers to a screaming, cheering crowd.
“It’s always nice to do things for charity,” Engle said. “I think it’s a great thing that they’re doing here. It’s bringing a lot of recognition to all the different charities in the area, and it’s good for the kids to compete for something other than money for themselves and to do things for charity. I had good teammates. They made my job easy. I watched them go and knew they were very fast, so I knew I’d better take a shot or I was in trouble …. They were both fantastic.”
Donna Baxter, one of the representatives for the Wellington PTO/PTA, said the $150,000 will be divided among 12 public elementary, middle and high schools in Wellington, giving $12,500 to each. Baxter is co-chairwoman of Project Graduation at Wellington High School and also is student activities director at Palm Beach Central High School.
“This is a unique charity in that the schools are all beneficiaries of this,” Baxter said. “We were thrilled to think that last place we would get an $800 cut [each]. That’s found money. We work very hard to fund-raise for $800. So for us, we were thrilled to be here to accept that. It is beyond comprehension that we were able to win this money.”
By MICHELE DARGAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER