Precious “Sapphire” super clean…

A terse, two-paragraph missive from the FEI this morning (at right) confirmed what McLain Ward already knew: Leg swabs on his World Cup show jumping finals mount, Sapphire, were negative.

Legs are swabbed to determine whether any forbidden substances have been used on a horse to make it lift its legs higher over a jump, because administration of the substances causes pain if the animal hits a pole.

“No prohibited substances were found,” concluded the statement, which did not mention Sapphire by name, only that all leg swabs for entries at the show were clean. It seemed precious few words in the wake of a disaster for McLain and

the U.S. contingent in horse sports' biggest scandal of the year–at least so far.

The conclusion doesn't do McLain much good now, after he lost what quite possibly could be the chance of a lifetime to take an individual global championship on the mare with whom he earned two Olympic team gold medals.

McLain and Sapphire, who were in the lead after two legs of the Cup finals in Geneva, Switzerland, last month, were eliminated from the competition after poking and prodding led officials to conclude the mare had a hypersensitive spot on a tiny area of one leg. (Read more in The Jurga Report.) While the FEI said at the time that McLain and his crew were not being accused of any wrongdoing, the tests for the Medication Control Program (MCP) were the final word.