McLain Ward Outdistances at the Winter Equestrian Festival
The 2006 Winter Equestrian Festival, the thirty fourth edition of the nation´s largest and longest running equestrian series, opened under partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures on Wednesday at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington, Florida.
The Nutrena/Western Hay Wellington Classic, CSI 2* runs now through Sunday, January 30th and is the first of seven weeks of exciting horse show action. This year´s festival promises to be the biggest and most competitive in history.
Canada´s Michel Vaillancourt is the opening week Course Designer at the Internationale Arena.
There were thirty five starters for the opening competition, the $8000 1.45m Open Jumpers, scored under USEF Table II, Sec. 2b, Time First Jump-off. Of the thirty-five that went to the post, thirteen produced first round clears, while eleven others had one knockdown in the initial round.
Ian Millar, a nine time Olympian from Canada, took the early lead riding out of the fourth spot in the order. Aboard Redefin, owned by Susan Grange, Millar toured the course without penalty and crossed the finish line in a handy time of 36.932 seconds.
Millar was overtaken three horses later when last year´s winner, Molly Ashe, joined the fray with Vicomte D, the newest entry from Jane Clark. Ashe lopped 1.64 seconds off of Millar´s time, tripping the timers in 36.76 seconds.
2004 Athens Olympic Team Gold Medalist McLain Ward and Double H Farm´s Goldika 559, put the class out of reach just a few minutes after Ashe left the ring. Riding out of the eleventh spot in order, Ward put the pedal to the metal and raced across the finish line a full 5.16 seconds faster than Ashe, posting an incredible time of 31.60 seconds for the victory.
Results of Class 1002 1.45m II 2 –
Nutrena/Western Hay Wellington Classic
CSI**January 25, 2006 – International Arena
1º Mclain Ward / Goldika 559 / 0 / 0 / 31.60s
2º Molly Ashe / Vicomte D / 0 / 0 / 36.76
3º Ian Millar / Redefin / 0/ 0 / 36.93
4º Cayce Harrison / Coeur / 0 / 0 / 37.54
5º Lauren Hough / Clasiko / 0 / 0 / 41.34
6º Chris Kappler / Vdl Oranta / 0 / 4 / 36.34
7º Eric Flameng / Roxanne / 0 / 4 / 37.14
8º Christine Mccrea / Laddidor / 0 / 4 / 38.16
9º Aere Yann Candele / Millcreek´s Marco T / 0 / 4 / 39.14
10º Megan Lamaze / Ollandaise / 0 / 8 / 36.31