The following is an excerpt from the Show
Jumping Hall of Fame website honoring this 2000 inductee:
Touch of Class was a famed member of USET's 1984 Olympic "Dream
Team." After posting the first double clear rounds in Olympic history and
clearing 90 out of 91 jumps, Touch of Class took home two Gold Medals and the
admiration of the world. So big and wide were the oxers (from 4ft 9 inches to
5 ft 6 inches high and 6 ft 6 inches to 7 ft 2 inches wide), that it was rumored
that the oxers were larger then her stall!
Her tremendous performance also helped
her become the first non-human to win the USOC Female Equestrian Athlete of
the Year Award.
Even before the Olympics, Touch of Class
was a winner. The 16-hand, bay Thoroughbred, foaled in 1973, quickly transitioned
to the jumper ranks after a brief racing career. She won the intermediate championship
at the Washington International Horse Show with Debi Connor before Joe Fargis
took over her reins. In her first year at the grand prix level (1981), Touch
of Class won classes at Harrisburg, Washington, and New York.
Touch of Class and Fargis proceeded to make
the USET's World Championship team at Dublin in 1982, but a leg injury caused
Fargis to turn her over to Conrad Homfeld for the remainder of the season. With
Homfeld in the irons, she was victorious in the Grand Prix of Southampton and
qualified for the World Cup final in Vienna the following spring, where the
pair finished 4th.
In 1983, Fargis guided Touch of Class on
victorious Nation's Cup teams in Rome and Calgary. Before her career was finished,
she was also on winning Nation's Cup teams at Aachen, Washington, and New York.
In 1984, she won the Grand Prix of Tampa, and turned in several consistent Olympic
Trial performances before being named to the USET Olympic Show Jumping team.
Following the Olympics, Touch of Class continued
to compete successfully throughout the 80's.Following her win at the Olympics,
Touch of Class and Joe Fargis went on to win the Washington Presidents Cup,
the New York Grand Prix (National Horse Show) and the Pennsylvania National
Grand Prix (Harrisburg); the Triple Crown of the Indoor Shows. In addition to
her Olympic win, she won over six grand prixes, was second and third in another
14 grand prixes and competed in six winning international nation cup teams.
In 1984 and 1985, she carried Fargis to first place in the World Cup U.S. East
Coast League standings. She also embarked upon a successful breeding career.
Touch of Class lived a happy retirement
at River Circle Farm in Franklin, Tennessee where she passed away on July 1,
2001.
