I am currently sitting in the O'Hare airport on the floor next to what appears to be the only functioning outlet in the place. All I can smell is latte. We had a botched breakfast plan yesterday so decided to go for coffee instead. I managed to spill not one but two cups of coffee on Martin Atock and on my backpack. Now if any of you know Martin, he doesn't like to be messy, he was then in the Venetian covered in Latte. He doesn't feel sorry for me that my bag smells funny but I do have his dry cleaning with me to ensure he has something to wear by the time he gets to Lexington on Tuesday. The trip to the Venetian was well worth it, even causing great debate as to whether the sky way actually moving or if it was painted on the ceiling. I won that one.
The day ended with a strange feeling of happy disapointment. We were all so proud of McLain and Sapphire but perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. He couldn't have been more gracious in the press conference (unlike another second place finisher over the weekend). We are so lucky to have athletes like these in our country.
We went out for dinner last night with Sally Ike (who learned a new bar trick), Will Connell, Lizzy Chesson and myself. It may have been the best meal I've had in Vegas. I had 9 silver MGM dollars so i cashed them out before I left. the guy in front of me was cashing out $7900. He had a better week than I did at the tables!
I'm going to be very, very happy to get home. I have five people in town for Rolex, they all need beds!
Top 10 Things I Saw at the 2009 FEI World Cup Final
1T. Ravel. An inexperienced horse went eye to eye with the very best in the game and refused to blink. He held his own and as a result Steffen Peters got a watch of HIS own (and one for his wife Shannon). By Sunday afternoon, Ravel was back looking like a giant pony: mane everywhere, he had just gotten up from a nap and was covered in shavings looking a little sleepy. He wouldn't have been the only bleary-eyed person in the Peters camp yesterday.
1T. Sapphire. 'Sara' was dazzling. Caught out by two seconds in the World Cup scoring system, she had to settle for second. But her performance was perfect. More than that though, she is such a part of the family. Both the Wards and the McKeevers (Erica and Lee look after her). After everything was all over, Lauren Ward was trying to find a donut to feed her. Sara has a wicked sweet tooth.
3. Shutterfly (I'm probably biased to Sara). This fleet-footed sportscar just zoomed around the Thomas & Mack Arena. The faster Meredith went, the better he jumped. It was extremely emotional win for Meredith as her father had passed away less than a month ago.
4.Will Simpson riding a reining horse in the celebrity challenge. He is so game for anything, 15h Quarter Horses included. He told me on Sunday he was going to talk to the reining guys about carrying on with it. I told him that I wanted to see him in 2010 at the WEG in two sports. Will also was our master interviewer after the show jumping. He talked to Hillary, George and McLain about the World Cup Final.
5. Juice Newton singing Angels in the Morning before the second show jumping round. She was just awesome. I've since bought both her's and the Pretenders' versions of Angels in the Morning and I'm currently doing an iTunes comparison while sitting in O'Hare.
6.Rich Fellers save on Flexible when they disagreed about where they were going to turn, both instantly agreed that they would try to stick together and Rich never gave up.
7.The Hoover Dam. When it was built at the beginning of the century they knew it would change the country, it meant that a place like Las Vegas could survive in the desert.
8. The reaction of people to Debbie and Steffen when people got to meet them for an autograph signing. People are starstruck.
9. Brentina's retirement ceremony. There were broken hearts all over that venue. But the legendary mare will hopefully be producing more legends soon.
10. Shannon Peters wearing a jacket on Saturday night that said: Ride it like you stole it.
