Margie Engle triumphs in the Wellington World Cup
A near record crowd of 11,784 enthusiastic and animated show jumping fans packed into every available space at the Internationale Arena on Sunday afternoon at the Winter Equestrian Festival. They watched and cheered as their hometown hero, Margie Engle, raced to an electrifying victory in the main event.
Forty-five starters went to the post for the 2 p.m. start. Jose “Pepe” Gamarra of Bolivia designed the test for today’s grand prix. Of the forty-five that started, five produced clean rounds to qualify for the timed tiebreaker. Three additional competitors jumped clean but exceeded the snug time allowed and finished with a single time fault. Eight riders had a single knockdown, while six had two rails and sixteen had three or more. Seven of the horse and rider combinations elected to withdraw or were eliminated.
Twenty-four of the forty-five starters picked up time faults.
Riding out of the second spot in the order, Wellington’s Margie Engle and Hidden Creek’s Wapino, owned by the Hidden Creek Farms, were the first to master the track. They were followed ten horses later by Olympic Gold Medalist Beezie Madden and Abigail Wexner’s Authentic. Another dozen competitors went by before Cara Raether became the third to qualify for the speed phase. Riding twenty-seventh on the roster, she was clear on Quilano de Kalvarie, owned by the Trelawny Farms. Three horses later, Canada’s Mario Deslauriers added his own mount Paradigm to the list. The jump-off field was then set when Markus Beerbaum, the forty-fifth to compete, went clear with Constantin 24.
Engle and Hidden Creek’s Wapino returned first and set a standard that none of the remaining four competitors could catch. Engle toured the shortened speed course fault free and was under the wire in 39.88 seconds.
Madden and Authentic, winners of Friday’s WEF Challenge Cup, caught Engle’s time but also caught the rail at fence 15 in the jump-off. Madden cruised home with four faults in 38.71 seconds.
Following Raether’s slower four fault jump-off ride in 42.80 seconds, Deslauriers and Paradigm took over second place with the second clear ride in the tiebreaker. His time was 41.92 seconds.
Beerbaum gave it a heck of a go at the end but pulled the pole at fence 5c and finished in 39.59 seconds.
Riders were very happy with Jose Gamarra’s course today. “I thought it was a good course today,” said Delauriers. “There were a couple options here and there. I think he built a good track. There were a lot of places to get faults. I thought it was very fair. There were actually three others clear with a time fault, so I think the time allowed was just right, tight enough to push the ride just a bit to cause faults to happen.”
Engle agreed. “I thought it was a good course, too. We’ve had killer courses the past couple weeks, so I thought it was kind of nice when I walked it,” she said. “I thought it was very technical and tricky in spots, but after last week it was a treat. It was a thinking course, but not a killer course.” She went on to say, “The horses can’t take jumping courses like we jumped last week every week. So it was nice to make it difficult in different ways, like with the tight time allowed.”
The triple combination at 5a-b-c, accounted for 36 penalties throughout the class today and Gamarra explained, “The triple combination is always a tough test. I originally
was going to do three doubles but the course designer last week did that.”
With today’s win, Engle is at the top of the charts for the World Cup Finals in Malasia in April.
Results (19.02.06)
CSI-W Florida
1. Margie Engle / Usa / H C's Wapino / 0 / 0 / 39.88s – $22 500
2. Mario Deslauriers / Can / Paradigm / 0 / 0 / 41.92
3. Beezie Madden / Usa / Authentic 0 / 4 / 38.71
4. Markus Beerbaum / Ger / Constantin 24 / 0 / 4 / 39.59
5. Cara Raether / Usa / Quilano De Kalvarie / 0 / 4 / 42.80
6. Ken Berkley / Usa / Carlos Boy / 1 / 79.74
7. Kimberly Prince / Usa / Couletto K. James / 1 / 79.77
8. Santiago Lambre / Mex / Campino / 1 / 80.41
9. Mclain Ward / Usa / Goldika 559 / 4 / 75.35
10. Jimmy Torano / Usa / Ormsby Hill / 4 / 75.56