McLain Ward couldn’t hold back the emotions when he finally clinched the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping trophy in Omaha. It had been a long time coming for the New York rider, and the victory was very, very sweet.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years or more, and I’ve come so close so many times, and one way or another I’ve messed it up. I’m so grateful for my horses and the people around me, like my groom, Lee, who has been with me for 29 years – they all helped me pull this off!”
The double Olympic gold medallist was a favourite from the outset and had been fault-free in every round, though competition was fierce. He received a little more breathing space when second-placed Gregory Wathelet from Belgium had a fence down with Forlap in the day’s first round (the pair eventually finished seventh). However, Switzerland’s Romain Duguet stalked McLain to the very end and took runner-up spot with TwentyTwo des Biches, while Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann moved up from sixth to third with a double-clear on Mary Lou.
As he set off, last to go over Alan Wade’s massive second course, McLain knew that a pole down would lead to a head-to-head against Romain Duguet, and any more than that would hand the trophy to his Swiss rival.
“I’ve been in this situation where I’ve cracked, so I took a breath and believed in my horse – and she did it!” he said, after raising the roof of the CenturyLink Centre and taking his place in the history books as the 10th American to win the title in its 39-year history.
A field of 26 competed in the third and final leg, with nine jumping clear in the first round, including McLain and HH Azur. Twenty returned to compete over a completely new course in round two, with 12 going clear.
The top three horses were all relatively young mares – HH Azur, Twenytwo des Biches and Mary Lou. McLain and the 11-year-old HH Azur did not touch a single pole throughout the three days of competition. Twentytwo des Biches (final score 4-0-0-4) is a 10-year-old, and Mary Lou (final score 8-0-0-8) is 11.
Three geldings filled the next three spots: fourth place went to Clooney and Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs (5-4-0-9), fifth to Arrayan (9-0-0-9), a son of two-time World Cup Final winner Baloubet du Rouet, ridden by Sergio Alvarez Moya of Spain, and sixth to Qinghai and the youngest rider in the competition, 21-year-old Guido Klatte from Germany.
Henrik von Eckermann and Mary Lou (Image: Liz Gregg/FEI)
An elated McLain Ward said, “My only game plan was to do the best I could every day and hopefully be in the hunt today. You have to go into these championships now knowing that you have to jump clear rounds to win. There’s no room for error.”
Romain Duguet took a more low-key approach: “I came here with no pressure. For me, if I finished in the first 10 I was going to be really happy. I go day by day, so for me this second place was just a bonus!”
Henrik von Eckermann, who was third, said he knows he has an outstanding jumper in Mary Lou. “When I decided to leave Ludger (Beerbaum’s) stables and go out on my own, Karl Schneider said he had this horse and I should come and try it and if I liked it he would keep it until September. So I tried her and I knew she was something special right away.”
