WELLINGTON, Fla.--With the second five star weekend at the Winter Equestrian Festival, all the heavy hitters finally came out, and Laura Kraut on Baloutinue narrowly beat McLain Ward in the seven horse jump-off of the $435,000, 5* Grand Prix on Saturday evening, Feb.25.
Laura Kraut on Baloutinue (Photo by Sportfot)From that seven-horse jump-off, the stage was set for a U.S. battle as Kraut, Brian Moggre and Mclain Ward were the final three to jump off after four top international riders had gone.
Over course designer Steve Stephens' course, Moggre on MTM Vivre le Reve pulled a brick from the wall to eventually finish fifth.
Next to go, Kraut’s winning time of 40.26 seconds on her Tokyo Games mount Baloutinue stood after Ward gave his best aboard Contagious, but finished just three tenths shy of the winner’s mark.
“I knew it was going to be difficult,” said Kraut. “The track Steve built was big and the oxers were really wide. For me, I thought it was probably the scopiest course we had this year, and I was happy with what I saw.”
WARD ON Contagious placed second behind his U.S. teammate, also riding his 2020 Olympic mount.
McLain Ward on Contagious (Photo by Sportfot)Ireland’s Olympic veteran Shane Sweetnam set the clear-round standard in the jump-off on James Kann Cruz and finished third.
Fellow Irishman Daniel Coyle on Gisborne VDL had a career-high finish at the CSI5* level for the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion to finish fourth.
Top German rider Daniel Deusser on the great mare Killer Queen, going early, had an uncharacteristic stop when turning too tight to a fence to place sixth, while Adrienne Sternicht on Benny's Legacy also had a stop to place seventh,
“I’ve not had many successful jump-offs and I’ve not jumped very many with him,” said Kraut of Baloutinue. “I always try to go faster than I probably should, but he’s fast enough on his own, and tonight I just let him go his speed and that seemed to work better.
“He’s a trier, he’s elastic and he’s very careful,” she said. “It was a fantastic crowd; the atmosphere here at night is as good as it gets. We feel like the crowd is really behind us; when I was clear it was an explosion.”
“I know that Laura’s horse is very quick, and Contagious is fast across the ground but a little slow in the air," said Ward. "I tried everything I could, and I didn’t leave anything on the table. I did see one less to the second-to-last, looking through the gazebo, but it was such a blind turn and he has a tendency to go a little to the right. I thought it was too risky, and to be frank I thought maybe I had done enough already.
“You never want to win because someone else messed up, you want to win because you were the best and you did better,” said Ward. “Contagious is incredible because he’s always very careful, but I never really expected him to do everything he’s done. I think at the end of the day the horse is a little bit of a lion. He rises and he fights with you, and he’s really been a great partner to me.”
Sweetnam was third on a horse that’s 10 but brimming with potential., and he said that James Kann Cruz is only getting better,
“I’m very happy with him," said Sweetnam. "Every time I jump with him, I feel I have a chance, and every class I can go a bit quicker. We’re sat up here with two Olympic horses, so I couldn’t be happier.”
“All the five-stars have different course designers that come over here and they want to prove something," said Sweetnam. "Two weeks ago was an incredibly tough course and the standard was very high. Same again tonight, I thought there would be only three clear but it showed how good the standard was of the horses and riders. It proves that these are top five-star grand prix and you better bring you’re A-Game.”
LAURA CHAPOT, who at about halfway through the season is again in the lead to win the Leading Open Jumper Rider title that she has held for over a decade, won the CSI2* 1.45m Qualifier over 68 competitors.
The $39,000 CSI2* 1.45m class was the qualifier for Sunday's 28 grand prix, and Chapot won riding Chandon Blue.
Seven riders representing seven nations battled it out over the tie-breaking jump-off track, but Chapot and her longtime partner Chandon Blue could not be caught.
“He really likes it down here in Florida; this is probably the one time of year he works the hardest, but he doesn’t need a lot of practice,” said Chapot. “He loves to compete. He gets bored when he is at home, and I wonder sometimes if something is wrong but then he gets to the show ring and just grows.”
The gelding has been one of Chapot’s top mounts for many years and proved to be as quick on his feet as ever after clocking in a double-clear effort in 35.75 seconds.
“I had a pretty solid plan in my mind today and I just had to watch the first horse to know if it was going to work or not,” said Chapot, who has experienced immense success in speed rounds in the International Arena at WEF. “He can sometimes get almost too enthusiastic in the show ring so the hardest thing with him is to keep him thinking and relaxed. Today he seemed settled, and he really couldn’t have ridden or jumped any better for me in this class.”
Luis Fernando Larrazabal of Venezueal was second on Condara, clean in 36.06 seconds to just narrowly beat third place Canada’s Alicia Gabdan-Lewis on Beneficial, clean in 36.73 seconds.
