Ward Mclain smiles the day in Wellington

Ward Mclain smiles the day in Wellington
McLain Ward (USA) and Double H Farm’s HH Carlos Z won the $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix CSI 5* in front of a packed house at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) Saturday night to conclude International show jumping at the 2015 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). Forty of the circuit’s best horses and riders representing 13 different countries jumped for the winter’s top prize. Daniel Bluman (COL) and Conconcreto Sancha LS finished second; Georgina Bloomberg (USA) and Lilli placed third.

Steve Stephens (USA) designed the courses for Saturday’s competition. He set a challenging track for the $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix CSI 5*, the biggest class of the circuit, which yielded three entries to advance to the jump-off.
Bloomberg and Gotham Enterprizes LLC’s Lilli jumped first with eight faults in 44.39 seconds. Bluman returned next with one rail in 41.64 seconds. Last to go, Ward and HH Carlos Z knocked the top plank off the second fence, and everyone held their breath. The pair cleared the rest of the course, coming home in 41.25 seconds for the win.

Hunter Harrison of Double H Farm purchased HH Carlos Z, a 13-year-old Zangersheide gelding (Chellano Z x Voltaire), for Ward to ride last winter and the horse has continued to impress.

“He is very careful and very competitive, but we did not buy him to jump this level of grand prix,” Ward detailed. “Last year in the summer we had to call on him a few times when Rothchild was resting for the WEG (World Equestrian Games) and he stepped up beautifully, including the Spruce Meadows Masters in September. We knew we had a little more in the tank than we had planned. I would say coming into WEF, it would not have been the horse I thought I would have ridden tonight, but as I always say to Mr. Harrison, he is one of those horses that is always worth getting dressed for because he is going to fight and try and dig. You really appreciate those kind of athletes.”

Commenting on his jump-off round, Ward explained, “With three in the jump-off, the plan was not going to be too complicated. Kent Farrington is a great friend and competitor and we were talking about it as we were warming up. Georgina had the unenviable position of going first. When Daniel had the fence down, I said to Kent, ‘Okay, we can win this two ways.’ That plank was a bogey; it was very dark up there with the crowd behind. It was hard to jump in the first round and even harder to jump in the second, so our plan was to try to go fast and clear obviously, but fast so that if you did have a fence down, you could make up the time. Luck was a little on my side. I had two weeks in the $1 million grand prixs where I lost by a hair and that is what sport is about. It is great. Probably at the end of the year that evens out; sometimes you are on the upper hand and sometimes you are on the lower.”