Thursday, January 26, 2006

McLain Ward and Goldika 559 Outdistance the Field on Opening Day at Winter Equestrian Festival

Wellington, FL – January 25, 2006 – 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 36.768 seconds.

2004 Athens Olympic Team Gold Medalist McLain Ward and Double H Farm’s Goldika 559, winners of the Chesapeake Speed Classic at the National Horse Show here in November, 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 31.600 seconds for the victory.

“When you’ve got to pay the bills, show Goldika,” laughed Ward following his win. “It was nice. I was getting Sapphire ready for the grand prix, not being competitive really. So it’s nice to have a horse like Goldika that I can win with.”

Ward commented on the beautiful condition of the grass at the Internationale Arena. “The footing feels phenomenal; they’ve also got great new footing in the Internationale Arena warm up area and you can see that Stadium Jumping is really making an effort, which is appreciated.”

Ward talked about a busy WEF schedule this year and his plans. “The first two weeks I’ll go with Sapphire and then following that Oasis will start,” he noted. “And Goldika will be my horse for the WEF Challenge classes. Looking ahead, Goldika will go to the World Cup Finals and with Sapphire, every class I enter is with the World Championships in mind,” he said. “Every step is planned.”

Asked about competing against the likes of Olympic Gold Medalist Rodrigo Pessoa and all of the other international stars calling Wellington home this winter, Ward said with confidence and a smile, “Winning will be just that much more enjoyable."

Ward will have a chance to extend his remarkable opening Thursday winning streak to three years in a row if he and Goldika can emerge victorious again in Round One of the $25,000 WEF Challenge Series, scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 1pm in the Internationale Arena.

The nine week long series of Thursday grand prix events are major money qualifiers for the WEF finale, the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

An exciting new addition at this year’s WEF is the $200,000 FTI Rider Challenge, a rider bonus pool of $200,000. Riders will accumulate points from their performances in the Thursday and Sunday Grand Prix events. The rider with the most points on March 12 will be awarded $100,000. Second place will be given $50,000, third place will receive $30,000, and $20,000 will be given to fourth place. FTI Consulting of Annapolis, MD, is sponsoring the $200,000 FTI Rider Challenge.

Results of Class 1002 1.45m II 2 - Nutrena/Western Hay Wellington Classic
CSI**January 25, 2006 – Internationale Arena

• 1 - 1270 MCLAIN WARD -GOLDIKA 559 -0-0/31.600 DOUBLE H FARM
• 2 - 957 MOLLY ASHE -VICOMTE D -0-0/36.768 JANE F. CLARK
• 3 - 2018 IAN MILLAR -REDEFIN -0-0/36.932 SUSAN GRANGE
• 4 - 1187 CAYCE HARRISON -COEUR -0-0/37.543 DOUBLE H FARM
• 5 - 1693 LAUREN HOUGH -CLASIKO -0-0/41.346 CLASIKO GROUP
• 6 - 90 CHRIS KAPPLER -VDL ORANTA -0-4/36.342 M&K ORANTALLC
• 7 - 1195 ERIC FLAMENG -ROXANNE -0-4/ 37.149 FLORIAC LLC
• 8 - 482 CHRISTINE MCCREA-LADDIDOR -0-4/ 38.167 CANDY TRIBBLE
• 9 - 1827 AERE YANN CANDELE- MILLCREEK'S MARCO T -0-4/39.144 MILLCREEK STABLES
• 10 - 529 MEGAN LAMAZE -OLLANDAISE 0- 8/36.317 STONEY HILL
• T11 - 1184 JUDY GAROFALO TORRES -OLIVER III -0- ret. HIGHER GROUND FARM
• T11 - 2263 ALISON FIRESTONE -INTREPIDE DU VALON -0- ret. BERTRAM R. FIRESTONE
• T11 - 2631 RODRIGO PESSOA -SI GANE VAN DE GRUN -0- ret. M SUNDBERG

PHOTO CREDIT: McLain Ward and Goldika 559 win on opening day at the Winter Equestrian Festival. Photo by Randi Muster.