[/caption]Wellington, Fla., December 4, 2006 -- It was a win-win-win situation yesterday for McLain Ward, Margie Engle and the National Horse Show fans packed in around the Internationale Arena at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club for the second and final leg of the Rolex/U.S. Equestrian Federation National Show Jumping Championship.
McLain got the overall title and the Rolex watch that went with it (plus a lot of prize money) after finishing second in both segments of the competition on Sapphire. Margie won the second phase with her effective beat-the-clock style aboard Hidden Creek's Wapino, and the crowd was treated to an afternoon of show jumping at its best over a course brilliantly designed by Pepe Gamarra.
Listen: Course designer Pepe Gamarra analyzes his route.
The only loser was Eric Flameng, who had won Friday night's initial leg of the competition convincingly aboard Roxanne. Since he also had topped the show's Welcome Stake (which was not part of the Rolex equation) it looked as if he were on a roll at the National. That ended abruptly at the eighth fence on course, the Rolex oxer, where Roxanne took a sudden dislike to the obstacle and stopped. Although she cleared it successfully after the refusal, she had rails down at the next two jumps, and Eric wisely decided to call it quits.
While the Belgian citizen could not have won the U.S. title (which carried an additional $15,000 in prize money as part of a $25,000 bonus pool) it would have been a proud addition to the European Championships veteran resume to have beaten a good number of America's best twice in their own national title meet.
A favorite saying around the show world is that "the cream rises to the top," and it was never more true than in the final leg of the Rolex championship.
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- National Horse Show Leading Jumper Rider Margie Engle on Hidden Creek's Wapino
- © 2006 by Nancy Jaffer
Not only was Margie first and McLain second, but Laura Kraut, their teammate in last summer's World Equestrian Games (WEG) effort, finished third on her reliable mare Miss Independent.
All that was missing was Beezie Madden, the fourth member of the WEG squad and the individual silver medalist in Aachen, but as I explained to you in my last postcard, she was at home in New York teaching while her horses got a well-deserved rest.
The only other one of the 31 riders participating in the final to make the jump-off was Ken Berkley on the handsome gray, Carlos Boy, whose full potential has yet to be reached, I believe.
Ken barreled down to the Rolex jump, the last fence in the shortened course configuration for the tie-breaker, and dropped the front rail. He wound up fourth, which was not bad considering the company he was in.
Interestingly, Margie doesn't consider Wapino a speedball, since she's just started going fast with him. But the long-legged 17.2-hand chestnut produced for her, finishing in a time of 29.85 seconds.
"I took a shot with him," Margie said. "He covers a lot of ground; he's got a big step. He's very tall, but he turns fantastically."
When Todd Minikus, his closest rival for the Rolex title failed to make the jump-off after having the fifth of 13 fences down with Olinda, McLain knew as he cantered onto the grass field for the tiebreaker that he had clinched the championship. And that was what he came for.
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- National Show Jumping Champion McLain Ward got a Rolex watch
- © 2006 by Nancy Jaffer
So the pressure was off a little bit, and he gave a good effort on Sapphire, who he noted is not known for her speed. He left all the rails in place after crossing the finish line in 29.98 seconds, well ahead of Laura's 32.21-second mark. And here I should say that Laura deserves extra credit for even riding. All weekend, she had been feeling queasy, and yesterday morning she was really rocky as she was schooling a horse and I told her she probably shouldn't be riding. So much for Dr. Nancy...
Though I was curious how the highly competitive McLain would feel about taking the title but not winning either of the classes involved, it turned out he was relaxed and happy. (And don't forget, he collected a total of $37,000 for his work this weekend. Who among us would not wish we could have done the same?)
