Call it the daily double. Only in Wellington, Fla., could you have a 5-star-rated $210,000 grand prix with 44 entries in the afternoon and a 3-star $134,000 grand prix with the same number (but different horses, or course) a couple of miles away in the evening.
That’s what happened yesterday in the municipality that bills itself as “the winter horse capital of the world,” though the classes ran with two different scenarios.
The afternoon competition, the Longines Grand Prix of the Palm Beach Masters at Deeridge Farm, drew the biggest names, among them U.S. stars Beezie Madden, McLain Ward and Margie Engle. The foreign riders included FEI World Equestrian Games silver medalist Martin Fuchs (who sadly fell off Silver Shine when the horse refused the second jump), Lorenzo de Luca in his snappy Italian Air Force uniform and Great Britain’s 2012 Olympic team bold medalist Ben Maher.
The jump-off was a cavalry charge of 15 horses, bringing to mind last Saturday’s 18-horse jump-off at the Winter Equestrian Festival’s 5-star $391,000 Fidelity Grand Prix, won by Martin on his WEG horse, Clooney 51.
Despite losing a rein before one fence and adding an unplanned stride, Paul O’Shea emerged the winner on Imerald van’t Voorhof while managing to get a time of 36.03 seconds, 0.75 faster than Margie on her intrepid stallion, Royce. The difference is the way Royce clears the fences, leaping high in a fashion that keeps the rails up, but which means some lost time.
Palm Beach Masters grand prix winner Paul O’Shea of Ireland on Imerald van’t Voorhof. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
“My horse is not the quickest in the air,” said Margie, who had the advantage of going last over the course designed by Alan Wade, who did the routes for the WEG.
Paul rides Imerald, a potential sale horse, for the Tisbo family’s Tequestrian Farms. Interestingly, one of the award presenters was Lauren Tisbo on behalf of her family’s Suncast enterprise, a sponsor of the class.
Margie Engle and Royce. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
Third place went to Juan Manuel Gallego of Colombia, the rider of Coulash van de Broy Z, who called it an honor to be on the dais at the press conference with Paul and Margie. Beaming, he said, said it was “one of the happiest days of my life.”
There was quite a contrast to the afternoon class and last night’s Winter Equestrian Festival’s Cabana Coast Grand Prix, run under the lights at the Equestrian Village, down the street from WEF and best known as the home of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival.
It looked as if there might not be a jump off. After the first half of the class, the only clear round among 22 starters belonged to Nicki Shahinian-Simpson on Akuna Mattata.
Nicki Shahinian-Simpson and Akuna Mattata. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
Four retirements and two eliminations in that group had course designer Catsy Cruz of Mexico asking for an Advil. But a jump-off emerged with the lone fault-free trip in the second half, Spencer Smith on Quality FZ.
Nicki and her mare, known as Nahla, ripped through the tiebreaker in 37.08 seconds. Spencer, who rides with Canadian Olympic gold medalist Eric Lamaze (but was on his own last night) clocked in at 38.71 seconds.
Spencer Smith and Quality FZ. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
Third place went to the fastest 4-faulter, Laura Chapot of Neshanic Station, N.J., who had the last rail with Chandon Blue. Laura is always a speedster, and it paid off as she got the Martha Wachtel Leading Lady Rider honors for the week.
Why was the course so tough?
“The grand prix here it always much more difficult than it walks,” said Laura.
“The lights, the difficulty of the smaller ring, the new venue. It always seems like you walk it and it doesn’t seem too bad and then the rails down come from everywhere. She’s very clever in the way she sets the course that way. It wasn’t one specific problem.”
Laura Chapot and Chandon Blue. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
Laura prefers a small jump-off to a larger one, explaining, “I don’t like it when there’s 15 clear before you go. As long as you’re confident in your plan and trust your horse, then it’s a matter of riding the course. If you ride it well, you can do it. When there’s a lot clear, you can get unlucky.”
Nahla is an interesting horse, because she is a triplet out of SRF Dragonfly, one of Nicki’s longtime mounts. Luckily, Dragonfly didn’t have to give birth to all three—they were carried by different surrogate mares. Each is in a different stage of development, but all are looking like they will make it in the jumper ranks.
Nicki has tried a few World Cup qualifiers with her, and believes that if she makes the cut and gets to the finals in Gothenburg, Sweden, this April, Nahla will be up to the challenge.
