British nummer one Ben Maher added a fifth grand prix win to his tally at this year's FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (FTI WEF) with a win in Saturday night's $125,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix CSI 3*. Competing in the tenth week of competition at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL, Maher topped Lauren Hough (USA) and Ohlala, and Daniel Deusser (GER) riding Fyloe v/h Claeyssenhof, who finished second and third.
Saturday night's $125,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix CSI 3*, yielding six clear rounds to advance to the jump-off, where all six then completed double clear rounds and raced against the clock for top honors Continuing the streak of a lifetime, Ben Maher mastered yet another grand prix course, speeding through the course last to go with Urico in the winning time of 41.01 seconds. Maher bested Lauren Hough and Ohlala's time of 41.25 seconds to put the pair in second place. Daniel Deusser and Stephex Stables' and Double H Farm's Fyloe v/h Claeyssenhof stopped the clock in 41.53 second to finish third.
Maher has been on an incredible roll in Wellington and kept the winning streak alive on Saturday night. So far, he has won week one's $30,000 Mar-a-Lago Club Grand Prix with Kavanagh IV, week three's $125,000 Fidelity Investments Grand Prix CSI 3* with Cella, week five's $370,000 FEI World Cup Grand Prix CSI-W 5* presented by Rolex with Cella, and week eight's $150,000 Grand Prix CSIO 4* presented by Wellington Equestrian Realty with Urico. Urico also won week five's $125,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 5 Section A in a California Split.
"It is unbelievable," Maher smiled on Saturday night. "I am on a lucky run right now, and Urico felt great. We saved him specifically for this class this week. Luckily, I was pre-qualified, and he just jumped a training round earlier in the week."
