IRISH Olympian Shane Sweetnam and Coriaan van Klapscheut Z scored a victory in last Friday’s five-star $62,500 Winning Round in Ocala following a 10-horse jump-off.

“I wanted to win, but it was hard to gauge what needed to be done to win,” said Sweetnam of the jump-off course. “There was a turn to the second-to-last jump, which I wasn’t in love with. I sort of took a gamble there to go around and be fast, then do one less stride to the last jump. It worked out well. It was just a little bit of an awkward jump-off, so I wasn’t sure it would be enough. Thankfully it was.”

Sweetnam’s win followed up on a fourth-place finish earlier at the five-star show on James Kann Cruz (ISH) and a second with Balou H in the Grand Prix Qualifier.

With only the top 10 qualifying for the tiebreaker, even though a dozen went clear, the competitiveness was off the charts and, seeking tiny margins everywhere, seven of those came a cropper. Sweetnam and Coriaan got the balance right as the quickest of the double clears in 38.50, ahead of McLain Ward (USA) with Lestro vd Valckenborg.

Four-star grand prix win

Sweetnam started riding Coriaan in FEI classes a year ago, but they now have 18 top-five FEI finishes, including a four-star grand prix win two weeks ago.

“He was still quite green last year, but got some really good results all year,” he said of the 10-year-old Zangersheide gelding by Comme Il Faut x Lord Z. “The end of last year he won a good grand prix, and then another at his last show, so now we expect a lot.” Stephanie Macieira (BRA) and Toulouse van’t Prinsenveld Z claimed third with a time of 38.48 seconds.