AMERICA’S most decorated modern day show jumper McLain Ward finished his campaign at the 2019 Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida on a high when galloping to victory in the five-star $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix last Saturday night. That victory marked his third win in the circuit’s richest class.
In a field of 40 entries, some of the best horses and riders in the world vied for the chance to take home the lucrative prize money. They were riding over a course set by 2016 Rio Olympic Games designer Guilherme Jorge of Brazil.
Eight of those found the key to a clear round to advance to the jump-off, among them Co Clare’s David Blake with Pine Hollow Farm’s Keoki, who came to Blake this season from Britain, where he was produced by David Simpson.
The combination were pathfiunders in the jump-off and set the standard when producing a smooth clear round in a time of 44.36 seconds. That was eventually good enough for fifth place and $30,000.
The winning time was lowered with the next horse, H5 Quintol ridden by Eduardo Menezes. They sped through the timers with a clear round in 36.36 seconds, despite a hard rub at the penultimate vertical, to finish fourth.
Next in was 19-year-old American sensation Lucy Deslauriers riding Lisa Deslauriers’ Hester. With an impressive early rollback to the Adequan vertical and a quick pace through the remainder of the jump-off, they shaved four-tenths of a second off the leading time to finish in 39.25 seconds for eventual third place.
To the delight of the crowd, the rounds kept getting faster and faster. USA’s Kent Farrington and the brilliant Gazelle, owned by Farrington and Robin Parsky, started off with a blazing gallop and never let up, streaming through the timers in 37.82 seconds.
They would have to wait for the remaining four entries to see if their time would hold up.
It all came down to Ward when he was last into the arena. Tapping into HH Azur’s massive stride and incredible talent, Ward made short work of the jump-off. After adding a stride in the final rollback, Ward pushed to the final Rolex oxer. They broke the beam in 37.42 seconds to take the win over Farrington by four-tenths of a second, and collect $165,000.
“I’m really excited for Azur and all of her owners,” said Ward of the 13-year-old Belgian Sport Horse mare by Thunder van de Zuuthoeve x Sir Lui who was out with an injury for some of 2018.
“It’s been a long road back since she was injured last summer. Obviously, she’s one of the best horses in the world, and her not being fit and healthy for the WEG was a huge disappointment to everybody involved with her. It’s a real testament to Tim Ober, our vet; Mikey Boylan and Lee McKeever and his team, who really brought this mare back to top sport.
“Coming back this winter, we’ve had a little bit of four fault-itis,” he continued. “I thought she jumped really great in the five-star a few weeks ago here and had kind of a funny rail down.
“I think she’s been in good form, but finally I put it together to not make a mistake. It was great for everybody involved.”
BLAKE IN-FORM
Earlier in the week, David Blake and Keoki placed seventh in the Grand Prix qualifier when double clear, and he won Wednesday’s national 1.40m aboard Pine Hollow Farm’s 10-year-old mare Emilia.
Galway’s Declan Egan was also in winning form, taking victory in Friday’s national 1.40m Table A with Laura Chapot’s Quointreau un Prince.
Daniel Coyle was best of the Irish in Wednesday’s 1.45m two-phase, slotting into third place with Ariel Grange’s Farrel VDL, in a time of 26.15 seconds to earn €4,000. Cormac Hanley was two places behind in sixth with Alma Z, and Kevin Babington slotted into eighth place with the Irish Sport Horse Super Chilled (by Gelvin Clover).