WELLINGTON, Fla.--McLain Ward rode Contagious to win the $37,000, 1.50m Classic CSI3* on Saturday, Jan. 23.
McLain Ward on Contagous (Photo by Sportfot)Over a course designed by Oscar Soberon, 12 returned for the jump-off, but it was Ward who had a clean and fast performance to win in a time of 36.83 seconds.
“My plan got a little screwed up this week," said Ward. "It was this horse’s first time back in FEI competition, and I didn’t want to jump two big classes, so I tried to use a younger horse in the qualifier. Unfortunately, that horse got a little bug-eyed and made some mistakes, so there was no grand prix for us this week.”
“For Contagious, that wasn’t the worst thing in the world, coming back to work with an important year ahead," Ward said. "It was a softer round for him today. I thought he was prepared well for the grand prix, which he proved today. He jumped a beautiful, easy first round, and I thought it was a nice jump-off for him. He’s a careful horse, and I’m just trying to be as efficient as possible, and that worked out well today.”
"He gets a week off now, and then we’ll do the four-star in two weeks." said Ward. "I won’t make the same mistake. He’ll be the one doing the qualifier and hopefully the grand prix, and then we’ll do the second big five-star. After that we’ll see where we are at and go from there.”
Second place in the 1.50m Classic CSI3* went to Shane Sweetnam, eho rides for Ireland,, on Ideal, whowas clean in 37.26 seconds, and third also went to Sweetnam on Indra van de Oude Heihoef, clean in 37.84 seconds.
