The ribbon was cut on Major League Show Jumping’s (MLSJ) final week with a win for Canada’s Chris Pratt and Ideaal ES (Ukato x Conway I) in Thursday’s $181,200 CSI5* qualifier, presented by Club Hípico La Silla, on the breathtaking field of Concurso La Silla during the ninth and final leg of MLSJ Season 5.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Northern Lights rider Pratt of his winning jump-off ride. “Ideaal is such a fun horse to ride—very careful and has a huge heart. He doesn’t have the biggest stride, but he was covering ground on this grass beautifully. [The course] was tough—there were a lot of questions that were tricky in a few different places. You needed quite a rideable and careful horse, and mine was both.”
Twelve countries were represented in the starting lineup—including five athletes ranked within the world top 10. A total of ten horse-and-rider combinations advanced to the jump-off over tracks built by Paris Olympic course designer Gregory Bodo (FRA).
Coming off a win in Thursday’s opening five-star earlier in the schedule, Canadian Olympian Erynn Ballard set what appeared to be an uncatchable time to beat at 38.89 seconds with De Flor 111 Z Santa Rosa (Der Senaat 111 x Action-Breaker). The win was already guaranteed for Canada when Pratt, 57, returned last to chase Ballard's leading time. He and his 13-year-old Dutch-bred gelding owned by Take The High Road, LLC, did just enough to stop the clock at 38.48 seconds and steal the victory.
With obvious emotion in his voice, the member of the 2006 World Championship and 2017 FEI Nations Cup Final squads for Canada said, “This is one of the biggest wins in a long time for me. To have this caliber of horses back jumping at venues like this is a dream come true.”
Pratt stepped away from competing at the top level during the last several years to focus on coaching, but is back with competitive horsepower. “To be back at this level and part of Major League this year was a big goal [for me]. To have a win in the qualifier at the final is icing on the cake.”
Ballard—a Roadrunners team veteran—and her 15-year-old stallion settled in second for owners Ilan Ferder and Andrea Hernandez Velasco. Third went to Brazilian Olympic Champion and Team KPF rider Rodrigo Pessoa, who piloted Prins van’t Eigenlo (Vigo d'Arsouilles x Zandor Z), an 11-year-old owned together with Rio Equestrian, to a time of 39.22 seconds.
The win put Pratt on the season leaderboard just outside the top 20 in the individual standings and added 16 much-needed points to the tally for Northern Lights, the team currently sitting in last place. Points earned in the qualifier, team competition and Grand Prix in Monterrey are worth double, making season-end titles still very much to play for.
