The leading American going into the last day was New York’s McLain Ward and Sapphire, his 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare. They entered the final two rounds of show jumping in fifth place. By the end of the competition, the pair had dropped to a two-way tie for eighth place (along with Germany’s Marco Kutscher) after downing two rails to take on eight faults in the first round and tipping a brick off the wall on the second obstacle in the second round to add four more. They ended their World Cup bid with a final score of 15 penalties.
Going into the final day of show jumping, there were nine Americans, and two of them making the top 20 to come back for the second round withdrew and did not compete – Molly Ashe Cawley with Kroon Gravin and Schuyler Riley with Ilian. Richard Spooner with Cristallo, Mandy Porter with Summer and Christine McCrea with Promised Land did not make the final round. That left four Americans heading into the second round – Kate Levy aboard Vent du Nord, Lauren Hough aboard Casadora, Margie Engle aboard Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold and Ward with his Sapphire.
Ward had taken the win on Day One of the competition. His overall finish could have been even lower in the placings if it weren’t for a few rails that refused to fall even though the pair gave them a good clipping. They were in danger of downing tow rails in the tricky triple combination in the first round. Thankfully, he left them in tact.
Ward was asked exactly what the trouble was today, and in his usual character, he was direct and frank. “I rode badly. The horse jumped great the first two days. I overrode her today in the first round, and I was shocked by the wall in the second round. Normally, she jumps that very well,” he said. “For that horse and myself, it was a very mediocre performance.”
The rider’s disappointment was obvious, as he truly felt that he had a very good shot at taking the title this year. “Obviously, it was a great start. For me, it was very disappointing and I thought I had a shot when I came here. I’ll have to do better next time, but this [today’s finish] is not going to change our program or plan.”
Mandli couldn’t have been happier with his win. “The first round wasn’t so good…my horse is quite sensitive, and I got a bit nervous because he [the horse] didn’t really concentrate. Then I had a bad ride to the second to last line in the first round, so that’s probably why I had the last fence down.”
In the second round, the rider and his horse found themselves more assured. “He [Ideo du Thot] gave me really good confidence. It just felt super to ride.”
Mandli also took great pride in being a Swiss rider atop the leaderboard at competition’s end. “Of course, it is a great thing for a Swiss rider to win the final. I think that everybody [in Switzerland] is happy there. We don’t have a really big amount of riders, only a few good ones at the top. We have to fight together.”
Coming in at second place in the World Cup was Germany’s Daniel Deusser and Air Jordan Z. The pair put in the only double-clean and clear rounds today, but they had 11 World Cup points coming into the final day, which was a bit much to overcome, especially with so many of his German countrymen and Swiss riders ahead of them in the rankings.
But, it was German superstar rider, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, aboard her champion 14-year-old Hanoverian Butterly Flip, that provided the day’s biggest surprise – and it was not a good one. As the world’s number one rider coming into the World Cup, she was certainly an odds-on favorite in a city where people bet on everything and anything. But, despite a strong showing early on, and being tied at first coming into the final day of competition, she proved that anything can happen in this sport. The rider stunned the crowd when, during the first round, she was eliminated. With only two jumps left to go in the round, she lost balance after clearing the Liverpool at the 11th obstacle. She fell to the ground, and her hopes for a repeat Las Vegas World Cup win went out the window.
Third place was a tie between a German, Markus Beerbaum and Leena, and a Swiss rider, Steve Guerdat and Tresor V. Guerdat sat as the overall leader coming into the final and Beerbaum sat inside the top 10 coming into Sunday. In the first round, Beerbaum and Leena downed the final rail in the triple combination to take on four faults. A second four-fault penalty in the final round might have kept him further down the finish tally if it had not been for the rails sent flying by two other Germans – Marco Kutscher and Marcus Ehning – both of whom sat in the top 10 entering the final day of competition.
Guerdat and Tresor V downed a rail late in the first round for four faults. He added a disappointing eight more faults in the final round to slide him down the leaderboard.
Germany had plenty to be proud of, however, with a total of six riders seated in the top 10 after the dust had settled in the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The Swiss had two seated – Mandli as the titleholder and Steve Guerdat at a tie for third with Beerbaum. In addition to Ward’s finish in side the top 10, the other country represented was Sweden with Malin Baryard-Johnsson and Butterfly Flip. It was a very tight finish outside the top spot occupied by Mandli. In fact, only one point sat between each of the riders finishing in second to eighth place.
The other American riders coming back for the Top 20 – Levy, Hough and Engle – each downed at least two rails in the final round. One of them – Levy – took on a single time penalty each, finishing just outside the 59 seconds allowed.
Hough posted the second-best finish for Team USA, ending at 16th place. Aboard Casadora, she experienced a refusal in round one on the third fence of the triple combination. She went back and tried the triple from the start of it, and she cleared it without fault. A downed rail, plus two time penalties, left her with six faults heading into round two. In the second round, she took on eight more faults.
Engel, in the 14th World Cup appearance, and Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold brought eight faults from the first round of the day to the bad start she had in the second round. It was a rough start as she burst through the first fence. Additionally, Engle added two more poles for a total of 12 faults. She finished her work in 17th place.
Finally, Levy, aboard Vent du Nord, downed one pole in the first round, plus two in the second round. Adding her time penalty from the second round, she found herself at 18th place to end her World Cup bid.